Two Halves :: Story One
by J R LeDoux
Summary: Repost By DameWren : What would it be like if, instead of Jiraiya, Naruto went on a training trip with some one else? What if Hinata went with him? What would happen? The answer: life. See Preface for more info; Reposted in preperation for sequel
1. Preface

**Preface**

My name is Jordan LeDoux, however you may call me J R LeDoux, (or Jordan I suppose). First and foremost, **this story was not written by me**. In fact, you will even find another repost of this story up on by _Spirit of the Abyss_.

No, I didn't have my hand in this story. That honor goes to an author known simply as_DameWren_. I am reposting this story, unedited except for clarity, because I intend to continue the sequel. The original author finished this story, Two Halves, in the summer of 2005, and started in on her sequel, Twice Shy. She got three chapters in.

To my knowledge, she quit fanfiction forever, and has been unreachable by all publically available means since. Her reasons, again as I understand them, were that she was unsatisfied with her own work on this story, and that she felt she want to write professionally, instead of fanfiction. Both things I think fanfiction authors, and readers, should be familiar with.

This, however, is perhaps the single best fan authored story I have ever read. And further, it is one of the very few stories which would benefit from a sequel instead of be hurt by it.

I have waited… waited for someone to give it a shot, to finish a sequel. I've waited for someone to pick up the gauntlet and give this story deserving of its original characters and original author.

And none have done so.

I never intended to write Naruto fanfiction that I would put out there. I was happy reading it, and keeping my writing to fandoms like Harry Potter. But this story _needs_ to be finished, and since no one more equipped has stepped up in the more than two years since its completion, I will give it my best shot.

I have contacted_Spirit of the Abyss_ about his repost, and have talked to him a bit about my plans. He expressed a willingness for me to write a continuation, and has agreed to help me by beta reading my work. I'd be interested in one more beta reader, and if you're interested, you may e-mail me at Jordan (dot) ledoux (at) gmail (dot) com, or if that fails (and it sometimes does), leave me a review with your information.

If you have found this story for the first time through either my or Spirit's repost, please give it a once through. Even if you only read what the original author wrote… even if you are not a Naurto x Hinata fan… this is a truly exceptional piece of work.

If you have read this story, and have been waiting for a sequel… I hope that I can give you what you're looking for. The sequel will be posted in my profile under the title "Twice Shy", (the title DameWren gave the story), once this repost has been completed… all 35 chapters.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you continue to read my work as well.

Ja ne,

Jordan LeDoux

**PS**: For clarity, this story begins directly after Tsunade becomes the Fifth. So the whole Sasuke arc hadn't started, and neither had the training mission. In fact, this story begins with Naruto returning to find Sasuke still in the hospital from the Chuunin exam.

**PPS**: For the record, I've also tried to get ahold of TimeShifter, DameWren's old beta reader. If anyone happens to be able to get ahold of him, let him know that I'm waiting for a reply to my e-mail.

**PPPS**: (That's a lot of post scripts). If you feel like sounding off, go ahead and leave a review. I'm not the original author, and I have no way of getting your reviews to the original author, but reviews on this story will definitely help me with direction on style for the sequel and such. :)


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_Naruto sat on the railing and looked out into the night. The landscape formed an abstract pattern of light and shadow, moonlight bouncing off the snow on the mountains and then disappearing into the crevices. He tried to remember if any of it had looked any different when he arrived here almost three years ago, but he couldn't decide. It could be the mountain, but then again it could just be him._

_He was supposed to go back tomorrow._

_He heard a door slide open and shut behind him, and felt the soft movement of air caused by her presence. She moved just past him and set something down on the floor. He took his eyes off the landscape and looked down at her._

_She was kneeling on the floor in a kimono, the sleeves tied up and her long blue-black hair tied into low tail. She calmly started to make the tea, hands moving in slow, certain movements, mixing the water and tea, then whipping it into a foamy green froth. Standing up she moved to hand him one of the cups._

"_Here, Naruto-kun," she said, her voice quite and soft, but lacking the trembling edge of nervousness it once held._

"_Thanks, Hina-chan," he said, taking both of the cups, which looked tiny in his large hands, so that she could boost herself up onto the railing beside him. She took the sleeved down before scooting herself slightly closer to him and taking her tea back with a grateful smile. They sat next to each other in silence for few minutes, tea warm in their hands, until Naruto finally couldn't stand it anymore._

"_Don't be so nervous, Hina-chan! Everything is going to be fine. I can't wait to get back and show that Sauske who the best is. Hehehe, I'm going to kick his butt in the jounin exams. No one can beat me, the next Hokage!" He looked over at Hinata. She was giving him a sort of a half smile, but he could see the doubt in her pale eyes. Her face clearly said "I know what you're doing, and I appreciate it, but it's not really working."_

_Over the past three years they had learned to read each other almost perfectly._

_He smiled ruefully at her, realizing that they both knew what was going on. He finished his tea in one gulp then swung one leg over the railing so that he could set his cup down on the ground. Reaching for Hinata, he pulled her down the rail towards him, until she was resting against his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and stared at the mountains over the top of her head._

"_I don't like this," he said pouting. He still had a tendency to act like a child when dealing with too many conflicting emotions._

_Hinata sighed and buried the side of her face into his shoulder. The only person they had had any contact with for the past three years was The Fifth and the letters they had received had been far from illuminating. Three years was a long time, long enough that any number of things could have happened._

_Hinata frowned into her love's shoulder. Enough things had certainly happened to them._

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Tsuande sighed and held her head in her hands. She had to get him out of the village. It was the only way to keep him safe. Orochimaru they could deal with now that they had the alliance with the Sand. Jiraya knew his patterns fairly well and, barring a disaster, they could counter him now that they knew he was on the move.

Itachi however, was another matter. They knew virtually nothing about him and his associates. She really had no way to guarantee Naruto was going to be safe as long as he was in Leaf. Too many people came in and out of the village. There was no way to keep tabs on the boy at all times and there was always the risk that he was going to get taken while on a mission. They had stopped them once, but how often were they going to be able to do so again? If they tried to take him in his sleep? If they threatened his friends?

She had to get someone to take him away, far, far away from the village where he could be trained, but protected. She needed him under the tutelage of someone no one would expect, someone no one would think of to look for. Someone that Itachi would hopefully know nothing about.

The person before her, sitting in the chair in front of her desk, legs swung over one side and arm stretched across the back, was the perfect choice.

But she was being so goddamn stubborn.

"No," she said simply and ate another of the chocolates she had sitting in her lap.

"Please Sora-chan."

"Don't -chan me and no." Her large pale, violet eyes showed no sign of remorse or guilt about turning her former teacher down.

Tsuande sighed. "All I'm asking is that you keep this boy safe until I can keep him safe. Considering all that I've done-"

"That is not all you are asking me to do, Obaa-san. You are asking me to take a thirteen year old boy with me, to my home, train him, keep him safe from a group of crazies who want to take over the world and put up with him trying to convince me to come back and become a good little Leaf nin." She shook her head popped another chocolate into her mouth. "Not a chance in hell."

Tsuande switched tactics. "I think you two would get along rather well. You have a lot in common."

Sora looked at her incredulously. "What can we possibly have in common? He's a thirteen year old boy!"

She looked at Sora over pressed fingertips. "And having known you at thirteen, I can honestly say you are a lot alike. He's sort of like you with a sunnier outlook."

Sora snorted and ate another chocolate. "I can't imagine myself with a sunnier outlook."

"Then you should meet him. He's a sweetheart, but he doesn't quiet fit in here."

"Oh, so he's going to fit in with me?"

Tsuande heaved a frustrated sigh. "Sora-chan, there is no other way-"

"Send him with that perverted guy again."

"I need that perverted guy here in order to help defend the village. Besides he's key to keeping tabs on another enemy."

"What about the kid's normal teacher?"

"He's off doing missions. My forces are depleted right now. I don't have any Leaf nin to spare; I'm at my wits end trying to cover all our missions right now. Besides, no one is able to stay off the map the way you are. I know if I send him with you, I won't have to worry about him being found."

Sora shook her head again, and laughed lightly. "You are not going to get me to pity you enough or flatter me enough to take this boy on. Its amazing you think I would even consider it." She rolled her eyes. "Please don't tell me you called me to this godaweful place just to ask me to do something that any sane person would know I wouldn't do."

Tsuande sighed. "The scar on your shoulder."

The woman shifted uneasily in her chair. "Yeah? What about it?"

"You told me once that it was the remains of a seal that had been broken."

Sora gave sort of a half shrug. "So?"

"I have a patient, a very important one, who had also been sealed. I want to look at yours so that I can see if I can figure out how it was broken."

Sora shrugged, clearly not thrilled with the idea, but she lacked a good reason not to let Tsuande look at her. "Sure, why not?"

"Would you come to his room so that I can compare them side by side?"

"Sure." Popping the last of the chocolates into her mouth, she stood up then transformed herself into a rather indescript looking chuunin. Tsuande rolled her eyes.

"What?" Sora asked. "I never go anywhere looking like myself. I attract too much attention."

"Maybe if you dressed a little less conspicuously."

She pretended to consider this for a second. "Nah." She opened the door and followed Tsuande out of her office. Sora tried her best to look at ease with her surroundings, but the fact of the mater was that the village made her skin crawl. She hated these places, and this one had far too many memories attached to it.

They entered the hospital, brushing past the information desk and up into the intensive care facilities. Tsuande paused briefly at the nurses station.

"Is there anyone in with Sasuke at the moment?"

The nurse nodded. "Hai, Hokage-sama. The girl who always comes."

Sakura. The girl had barely left his side since she got her and apparently had been there for weeks before that. Well, she would just have to leave for a while. Tsuande didn't know how long she would be able to keep Sora in the village and she needed to at least get her to meet Naruto first.

"The boy's got a girlfriend?"

"She's his teammate."

The two walked past the guards and into Sasuke's room. He was still knocked out and the small, pink haired girl beside him sat with a blank stare in her eyes. When they entered, she looked up at them with intelligent, but blank eyes.

Tsuande leaned down and placed one hand on her shoulder, as if she was a little girl. "Sakura-chan. I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave for a while. Maybe you should go home."

The girl looked like she was about to cry, then simply nodded and stood up. "I'll wait outside."

Sora dropped her illusion as soon as the girl had left the room. "Geeze she has it bad."

"He's something of a local heartthrob," Tsuande said.

"Really?" Sora peered at him, clearly unimpressed.

"He's a Uchicha. Top of his class."

Sora looked up startled. "Wait this isn't the one who…"

She shook her head. "No this is his younger brother. He's been sealed by my old teammate Orochimaru."

Sora shivered. Man, it sucked to be him. "How'd he get to be here."

"When Itachi went after Naruto, Sasuke went after-"

Suddenly, Sora's blood ran cold. "Naruo?" she asked.

Tsuande nodded. "That's the name of the boy I want you to take. Didn't I mention it before?"

Sora shook her head. "They're friends?" she asked.

Tsuande shrugged. "They're teammates, rivals. Friends, although this one probably wouldn't admit it. Would you sit down here?"

In a half daze, Sora moved to sit on the bed next to the boy, sweeping her braids off over one shoulder to expose the opposite one.

There was a round mass of scar tissue on her left shoulder, an almost perfect circle of white spiderwebs. "Let's get this over with please."

Sora stared at the boy lying next to her on the bed. Last member of his clan and sealed by Orochimaru. Maybe she should just kill him and spare him the pain.

Tsuande sighed and activated an analyzing jutsu, looking at the structure of the two curse seals. They were similar, but Sasuke's was far more complex. She had expected this but not this extent. Sora had been a little girl when she was sealed, how young Tsuande didn't know, but it must have been at least 15 years ago. Considering that he liked to build off of what other people had done, it would make sense that Orochimaru's would be better.

The lines of the seal extended inside their bodies from their shoulders into their brains. From there is wrapped down their spinal cords and latched onto all of the gates. However, where the lines were whole and smooth in Sasuke, wrapping around like thick cords, they were thin and cut in Sora. It was as if someone and gradually extracted all the curse that they were able to, then simply chopped the rest up. It took direct charka control on top of incredibly complicated medical jutsus, something that Tsuande just didn't have the expertise to do. Seals were in the gray area between med nin and genjutsu specialists. Whoever had removed Sora's seal was a med nin, strong genjutsu user and incredible control specialist.

"She's dead," Sora said suddenly. "I couldn't find her for you even if I wanted to." It took Tsuande a moment to realize what she was talking about. Then she laughed quietly. Fate just didn't seem to be on her side recently.

Suddenly, there was a commotion out in the hall. There was a crashing sound followed by a screaming voice.

"WHAT? Obaa-san is in there?"

"NARUTO! This is a hospital, be quiet!"

"Does she think she can cure Sasuke-kun?"

"I don't know, would you just shut up you loudmouth!"

Inside the room, Sora raised an eyebrow at Tsuande. "Who else but me calls you that?"

Tsuande smiled. The best way to get Sora to take Naruto was probably to introduce her to Naruto himself. "Naruto. I said you were a lot alike."

The eyebrow inched higher. She stood and transformed back into the chuunin before peaking her head out the door.

A blond boy stood with his back to her, yelling at the girl with pink hair. She looked like she was about to kill him. Oh yeah, she had it bad for this Sasuke boy. He turned around and started walking down the hall. Sora's breath caught in her throat. He looked just like...

No. That was impossible. But with that name…

"Obaa-san, why are the crazies after him?"

Tsuande had been deliberately avoiding this issue. She was worried that admitting that this boy had the demon fox inside him would only make Sora more resolved to leave without him. Sora was not a woman for complications. But if she was asking directly, she really didn't have much of a choice. "He was the one the Fourth put the seal on."

Sora's eyes went wide as she looked back at the boy. Dear god she was right. It was him. Mentally she stomped her foot on the floor. Aw shit. Now she didn't really have a choice; she had to take him with her. Her conscious would never let her live in peace if she didn't keep him safe.

She studied him for a minute, as he alternated yelling at the pink haired girl and the nurse, both of whom were trying to shush him. He seemed to almost vibrate with energy.

Tsuande moved to stand beside her. "Because of the demon, the village generally regards him as the enemy who killed most of their families. I can't explain how damaging the kyuubi was to the village and-"

"And they blamed him?" Sora interrupted.

Tsuande nodded. "He's been rather isolated from the rest of the village, but nothing seems to keep him down. Most people would choose a dark path when faced with his life."

Sora suppressed a cringe. Where was that ass who was supposed to be taking care of him? Why wasn't he keeping the boy safe? Why wasn't he making sure the village was decent to him?

She watched as Naruto accidentally knocked over a cartful of medical supplied with a large gesture then scrambled to pick it up. She shook her head.

Dear lord, three years.

It wouldn't hurt to let Tsuande stew for just a bit longer.

"He looks like nothing but a pain in the ass," she said, exiting the room and heading down the hall in the opposite direction. She heard Tsuande start down the hall after her, then stop. Looking back, she saw that the boy had intercepted her. With his hands on his hips, he was glaring up at the woman, suspicion plainly visible on his face. She laughed softly to herself and turned the corner.

It had been a long time since she had been in a hospital. She certainly would never permit herself to be checked into one and she hadn't had a traveling companion for a few years. Still, they rarely seemed to change. This side of the mountains or the other, hospitals were the same. Same long white corridors, same antiseptic smell. She hadn't really missed anything.

Mentally, she started sorting though the idea of having an apprentice. She'd never taken one on before. Then again, Nanashi had never taken one on before when she took Sora on. She supposed that made it even. It would probably be best to take him up to her house first; it was as safe a place to take him as any. There she could start putting him through his paces, see just how much her knew-

"Your lack of control over your abilities is a disappointment, as is your lack of general sense."

Sora froze at the voice. It sounded so much like her father it was chilling. She stepped back to look at the doorway where the voice was coming from.

"Gomen, Father." The voice was quiet and trembling and almost abnormally high as if the girl was about to burst into tears.

"You have potential. You have the blood of our clan running through your veins. You have the education both from our family and this village. Yet, you show almost no ability or judgment."

"Gomen!" The girl was definitely crying now.

"A Hyuung who cannot use his or her abilities is useless as a leader. Perhaps we should formally move you out of that capacity." Sora quickly turned away from the door as the man exited. Looking back over her shoulder, she watched him leave, shoulder's squared and long hair flowing behind him.

She stuck her tongue out at him. Asshole.

She looked back into the doorway. She couldn't see the girl, but she could hear her crying. She should leave. She should go back to Obaa-san, grab the boy and get out of here. Sora waged a quiet war with herself for a few seconds before she sighed and gave in to the fact that she was going to go in and talk to the girl. Why did pity always win out over sensibility? Quietly she slipped inside the room.

The little girl was sitting in the hospital bed, knees pulled up and her head down. Her whole body was shaking with tears. Her feet were bare underneath her kimono. That struck another chord. Unless she was training, Sora had not been allowed to wear anything but a kimono when she was growing up.

She looked like she was about eleven or twelve, but something made Sora talk to her like she was a little girl. "Hey, are you all right?"

The girl looked up suddenly, eyes brimming over with tears. "W-w-wh-who, who are you?"

The white eyes startled Sora for a second. Then she smiled. "Name's Sora. And you are?"

The girl swallowed. "Hinata."

Sora stuck her hand out and Hinata hesitantly took it. "Nice to meet you Hinata. You OK?"

Hinata ducked her head and nodded. Sora waited for her to elaborate then realized at the girl wasn't going to say anything.

"How did you end up here? Don't tell me you came for the food."

Hinata blinked at this strange woman who was now sitting on the side of her bed. "I got hurt in the chuunin exam."

"Really, what happened?" Hinata looked away and didn't say anything. Apparently it was not an okay topic to talk about. It was probably what her father had been talking about. "OK. Well, are you better?"

At this, Hinata nodded. "After the Fifth came, she healed me, but-"she suddenly stopped talking.

"But you don't want to go home. Because of your father." Hinata looked back at her quickly. Sora shrugged. "I happened to overhear. He wasn't being very nice." Actually Sora had a few choice words she wanted to use to describe him, but she wasn't sure the little girl was old enough to hear them.

Hinata shook her head violently. "No. He's right, I should be stronger, I should be smarter, but I just can't seem to..." She bust out into tears again.

Sora sighed and reached out to pat the girl's back. She badly needed some confidence and her father wasn't helping. Asshole. He probably thought he was helping her, making her stronger, but if this was the was it always had been...

She rolled her eyes. This was the problem with clans, this was the problem with villages. They put too much strain on their shinobi. Poor girl was a casualty of too much pressure to always be the best, the brightest, the strongest. All this hellhole was doing was wearing her down.

A thought crossed Sora's mind and she smiled slightly. Well, why not? Two would be easier to train than one. She could tell them to go train together and leave her alone some of the time. Plus she was always up to waging war against asshole fathers. As long as she was doing good deeds, she might as well do more than one. Improve her karma.

"Hey, Hinata," she started, but was interrupted by Tsuande banging the door open with fire in her eyes.

"SORA, you left me alone to fend off-"

Sora smiled brightly at the woman. "Hey, Obaachan. I'll take the annoying one off your hands if you'll let me have this one as well."

**Original Author's Notes**: This was originally supposed to be a response to a challenge to write a long unangsty romance between Naruto and one of the gennin girls. However, my imagination went wild and I ended up with this instead.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Hinata smiled. And that had been that, at least in Sora's mind. She was soon to learn that Sora was almost a force of nature in and of herself. Hinata's bags had been packed, Naruto had been called for and the two of them had been sat down in Tsuande's office in order to discuss their new mission. It all happened very fast: barely four hours between the time she had been sitting in her hospital bed avoiding looking at her father and the time she was standing outside the gates of the village to leave. Sora had wanted to get of the village fast, leaving everything else to be rather hastily done...

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"This is a class A mission with two key components," Tsuande said, looking at the pair across her desk. The girl was so short her feet barely touched the floor and she stared at her hands neatly folded in her lap, occasionally darting shy glances at the other two occupants of the room. The boy was almost beside himself.

"Class A! Haha so you have finally realize by strength right?" he said, jumping up onto his chair and pumping his fist into the air.

Tsuande furrowed her brow in exasperation and shot him an annoyed look. "It's mainly a training mission, not dangerous at all." Naruto froze and looked down at her, confused for a moment. He was distracted for just long enough that he failed to notice that the dance he had been doing had caused the chair to start to tip over. He started wind milling his arms, but it was too late. He landed on the ground with a large crash.

Hinata gasped. "Naruto-kun!" she said in a voice so soft Tsuande was barely able to hear it. The girl jumped off her chair and rushed to his side. "Are you okay?"

Naruto stuck one hand behind his head and began to try and laugh the whole thing off. "Yeah, yeah, I just tripped, you know."

Tsuande could almost see reality descend onto the girl. Now that the shock was over, she had started to realize what she had done, blushed and quickly took her seat again. Tsuande watched the girl give Naruto another sideways glance as he sat back down on his chair and was suddenly struck on the realization that Hinata had a crush on the overly loud blond boy. She should probably tell Sora. Then again, the woman would find out soon enough that she was going to be dealing with adolescent hormones. Serves her right for suddenly deciding she wanted to take Hinata along. This whole thing was not going to be easy to explain to the girl's father.

"As I was saying this mission has two parts. The first is training. Sora is taking the two of you on as a personal favor to me. She is not Leaf Nin. In fact, I am fairly sure that she has never belonged to any village. You will be able to learn things from her that you would never be able to learn else wise."

"From a girl?" Naruto questioned.

Tsuande rolled her eyes. Someday she would find out who had put these ideas into his head and jutsu away every bone in his body.

"Yes Naruto. Sora is a very skilled ninja. She could probably rival Kakashi,"

"NEH? Rival Kakashi-sensei? No way!"

"I know what she is capable of Naruto. I was one of the people who trained her. She is an extremely skilled and disciplined ninja, one you especially could learn a lot from."

Naruto was about to risk his neck by standing up on the chair again to protest, when they heard a very soft voice.

"Hokage-sama?" They both turned to the girl next to Naruto, who had almost been forgotten.

"Yes, Hinata?"

She tilted her head up just far enough to be able look at the woman, shoulders forward and hands still clenched in her lap. "What was the second part of the mission?" she asked quickly.

Tsuande smiled. "The other part of you mission is to try and bring her back."

"Huh?" Naruto said.

Tsuande shook her head. "As I said, Sora is a very good ninja. She would be a very valuable asset to Leaf should she decide to join our Shinobi. However, Sora has never served a village. She has a rather...poor view of them in general."

"Poor?" Naruto questioned.

"Let's just say that she vowed never to serve a village. Your job is to change her mind. That is what makes this a class A."

This time Naruto did manage to stand back up in his chair. "NANI? It's a class A mission for trying to convince this woman to join us. I wanna do something more dangerous! Send someone else!"

She sighed. "Naruto, you are the only one I think might have a chance of doing this."

"Huh. Why?"

"You managed to renew my faith in the villages. I had given up on the whole damn thing and now I am sitting back here as the Hokage. Sora will be a far tougher nut to crack than I, but I'm hopeful you can do it." She looked over at Hinata. "I'm not sure why, but she seems to have taking a liking to you. Hopefully, you will be able to help bring her back as well."

Hinata looked at her, her eyes suddenly wide. Naruto had been gone for weeks where he went to get the new hokage. If this Sora was supposed to be a even harder to convince... "How long do we have?"

Tsuande sighed. "I'm not sure. I'll send for you if I need to but considering how mush you two could learn from here I would like for you to stay there as long as possible."

Hinata swallowed. There was a large heavy lump forming in the pit of her stomach. "How long would that be?" Tsuande looked at her. The girl was smart. She was starting to realize that this probably wasn't as clean cut as Tsuande was making it out to be.

Naruto just kept looking back and forth between the two, trying to figure out what was going on. Finally Tsuande spoke.

"She said she would take you for three years."

Hinata's mind had gone into overload. Three years. Three years away from her father, her sister and the pressures of the clan. Three years away from chuunin exams, public displays of how poor a ninja she was and being brought face to face with her shortcomings.

Three years with him.

It was two much. It was as if someone had gone into her brain, taken her dreams and nightmares, kneaded them together and baked up into something that gave her feelings she couldn't even identify.

Just him and her with an instructor neither of them knew. That meant he would look at her. That meant he would talk to her! And that would mean she would have to talk to him! She couldn't do that! It had been easier for her the last time she had tried, at the practice ground right before the chuunin exam, but that wasn't an indication of what was normal. She could still barely form complete sentences around her teammates. Something had taken over her mind when she had been talking to him that day. She felt like there was something she simply needed to tell him and suddenly the words had coming slipping out with only the occasional small hitch. But that had been a miracle. And miracles rarely happened. She knew other girls would view this as a golden opportunity, the ideal situation away from all the pain and with someone who meant so much to her. But all she could think about was that she was going spend the next three years making an idiot out of herself in front of him.

She tried to focus her mind on the task in front of her. Just around the corner from where she stood, Kiba and Shino were waiting for her. Kurenai and her father had been informed by Tsuande that she was leaving, but the task of telling her teammates had fallen to her. She was dreading it. They had always been so nice to her, no patient with her shortcomings. They had kept her safe on the few missions they had and seen her trough the second part of the exam. Now she had to tell them she was leaving, pretend that she was strong enough to go out on her own.

She paused at the corner again, peeping just around it to see them. They stood there a good four or five feet apart, Shino leaning against the wall while Kiba roughhoused a bit with Akamaru. Hinata smiled; she was really going to miss the dog.

Suddenly, Akamaru stopped and sniffed the air, before giving a small quick happy bark. He turned around and started running to where Hinata was hiding. Realizing that she had been found and that she didn't have any chance to hide anymore, she stepped out from around the corner. Bending over she picked the little dog up with a small smile and let him start licking her cheek.

"Hey, Hinata. Ya' know, you're the only other person he does that to," Kiba said with a lopsided grin.

She suppressed her guilt as she walked over to the pair, scratching Akamaru behind his ears. She felt decidedly safer with the puppy in her arms and she wasn't about to let go.

"So, you're feeling better?" Kiba asked. Hinata was only able to nod. "Great, now we'll be able to go out on missions again. With all the chuunins and jounin's out, I'll bet we'll get some good one's now."

"A-actually, I just got a mission," Hinata said in a very small voice.

"All right! They're already sending us out!" Kiba yelled. He stopped suddenly when Hinata shook her head.

"It's just me."

Shino raised one eyebrow over the rim of his glasses. "They're sending you out on your own?" His voice had a distinctively incredulous tone to it.

Again Hinata shook her head. "I'm going with Naruto."

Kiba scrunched up his nose. "Naruto?" he said, "That idiot?"

Hinata almost had her face completely buried in Akamaru's fur. "It's a training mission." She looked up with a desperation written on her face. "I can't say anything else, please don't ask." She looked as though she was at the point of tears.

"Okay, okay, we won't ask anymore. Just how long to you think you'll be gone."

Hinata's voice was so quiet that they were barely able to hear her. "Three years."

"WHAT?" Kiba yelled. Shino looked as surprised as he ever did; both eyebrows arched high on his forehead. "Three years? But they can't..." He stopped when he say Hinata's face. Her eyes were huge and her face so pale that it almost matched her face. She had messed it all up again. They were angry with her, but she couldn't figure out what she had done. She shouldn't have told them whom she was traveling with; she knew Kiba felt bad about loosing to him. She should have broached the subject more gently, told them she was sad she was leaving them. But she was all frozen up and on the brink of tears.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, shoving a startled Akamaru back into Kiba's arms. Turning, she ran away, her eyes filled with water, but the tears not falling.

Kiba started to go after her, but Shino's hand on his arm stopped her. "What?" he yelled over his shoulder.

"She needs to calm down. We should go see her in a few hours."

"Didn't you see her crying?"

"She left because she was embarrassed. Give her a few hours and then we'll go talk to her."

Kiba hesitated, then sharply nodded, yanking his arm out of Shino's hand. A few hours. He could wait that long. Then he would drag the information out of her and go yell at whoever had assigned her to this mission with the blond baka. Oh, yeah. That was a good plan.

What both Kiba and Shino failed to realize was that no one wanted out of Leaf Village more than Sora. Hinata barely had time to grab her bag before she was expected be outside the gates, ready to leave.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto burst into Sasuke's hospital room, banding the door loudly against the wall. "Neh, neh, Sakura-chan. Guess what."

The girl sitting by the bed turned to glare at him, never letting go of Sasuke's hand. "Naruto, be quiet! Can't you see Sasuke is trying to sleep?" she whispered loudly.

He scooted around the end of the bed to stand next to Sakura. "Gomen, gomen, but you will never guess what happened!" He started to launch into an account of his day starting off with having ramen for breakfast and moving through everything he'd done. This was his chance to impress her. It wasn't so much about making her is girlfriend anymore. Almost a year spent on this gennin team had made him realize that friendship was what he had really been looking for. Not that he wouldn't go out with Sakura in a second if she said yes, but until the day he got her to acknowledge that he was excellent boyfriend material, he would be content to be her friend. If only she would realize how much stronger he was, how much better he was than from when the teams first formed. So he babbled on, trying to impress her with his new class A mission. He was oblivious to the fact that Sakura wasn't listening.

Sakura sighed and looked at the boy in the bed. She didn't really care what Naruto was talking about. All of her attention was focused on the boy in the bed beside her. She has been sitting next to his bed for nearly a week, watching him surface occasionally, only to dive back into sleep again. His hand in hers was too cold and clammy, but she kept holding on. He would never let her do this when he was awake. She was desperately worried about him. She still hadn't told anyone about the curse seal.

Suddenly the words "Class A mission" penetrated through her thoughts.

"Wait, what?" she said, turning her head to Naruto sharply.

"I told you," he said. "Obaachan is sending me on a Class A mission." Explaining it had gotten him more and more excited. It was as if he hoping to sweep Sakura up in his enthusiasm.

"You?" she said incredulously.

Naruto fought to keep his face from falling as his heart crashed through the floor. It wasn't fair. He worked so hard, yet the people who mattered most never seemed to see. He was always going to be the same bumbling idiot in their eyes. He smiled through his disappointment.

"Yeah, me and Hinata. But I gotta go." He ran to the door, then turned around to grin at her. "Tell Sasuke bye for me when he finally wakes up. See you in three year, Sakura-chan." And he went through the door and bolted down the hall.

"Wait, WHAT?" Sakura yelled, jumping out of her chair and scrambling down the hall. "Naruto you BAKA, get back here!" But he was gone.

A woman at the nurse's station looked at her reproachfully. "Miss please, this is a hospital. People are trying to sleep."

Sakura yelled at the woman in her head as she stared down the hall. What did he mean three years?

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Jiriaya leaned in close to Sora and smiled at her. "You know, I trained Naruto for a while."

"Oh really," Sora said, inching away. She didn't want to do anything to this guy; he was pitiful enough as it was. But if he tried anything...

"Oh, yeah. I did something very similar to what you're doing. Took him on the road, showed him the world." He draped one arm over her shoulder. She quickly ducked under it and pulled away. Dear god, was he always like this? How did Obaachan put up with it? "You know, I could give you a few...pointers on how to manage the boy."

Why the hell did that sound like a preposition? "I think I can handle him, thanks." Was he actually wiggling his fingers at her?

"Hehehehe are you sure?" There was a definite lecherous tone in his voice and his hands were most defiantly heading towards her breasts. OK, that was it. End of conversation. She brought her hands up around his neck and watched him go bug eyed for a moment. Then she simply brought his head down as she brought her knee up.

He doubled over in pain, wheezing harshly. She smiled and walked off towards where Tsuande was having a conversation with a black haired woman. Sometimes the simplest moves were the best.

"My god, is he always like that," Sora asked, walking over to Tsuande, who was talking with a dark haired woman. The woman smiled at Sora a little hesitantly. Sora suddenly remembered that this was Hinata's teacher and she was probably a little hesitant to give her up. Good. Hinata's father had been far too easily convinced.

"Huh? Oh, Jiriaya. Yes, unfortunately." Tsuande gave her a wicked smile. "You should be gal you still look like that. If you looked like your usual self he would have assumed-"

Sora rolled her eyes. "Enough about the outfit already, Obaachan!"

The woman looked confused. "What about her outfit?"

Tsuande sighed. "You wouldn't have to ask if you saw what she is actually wearing."

Kurenai raised her eyebrows. "You have an illusion spell on at the moment? That impressive; I really can't tell."

Sora shrugged. "I have a lot of practice. Plus I learned from the best. Obaachan has been covering her age since the first wrinkle." She looked thoughtful for a second. "Then again, if I looked like she did, I would probably do the same thing."

Tsuande rounded on her, eyes burning. "Why you-"

"Neh, neh. Are you our new sensei?"

Sora looked over at the short blond boy. "Naruto?"

The boy nodded vigorously. She looked behind him and saw the shy girl with the wide pale eyes. "Oh good, you're both here. Great, lets go!" She started to walk off.

"WAIT!" yelled Tsuande.

Sora looked back over her shoulder. "What?" she said in apparent confusion, which Tsuande was fairly certain she was faking.

"I want a word with you before you go. Besides you should give the kids the chance to say goodbye to their teachers."

Sora rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine just make it fast. I really want to get out of here." Tsuande walked over to Sora and started talking to her in a low voice. It took 30 seconds for them to start arguing. Naruto walked over to where Jiriaya was still curled in a ball on the ground, breathing heavily. "Watch out for that one, kid. She's dangerous."

"Probably just got what you deserved," he said with a snort.

Suddenly Jiriaya's face went serious. "Look kid. I know Tsuande and if she says that this Sora is good, then she's good. Get as much out of her as you can."

"Yeah, yeah."

"And kid."

"Yeah?"

"Take good care of the girl. Tsuande say's she has healed, but she's probably still scared."

Naruto grinned. "Yeah, well, she's a girl. I'll protect her."

Jiriaya grinned back. "Good, good! Then, once she trusts you, you can move on in and- ack!" Suddenly all of the air came out of his lung as once thanks to the force provided by Naruto's kicks to his side.

"Hey Ero-Sennin. I'm not a pervert like you." Leaving Jiriaya is yet another trembling mass on the ground, he turned and walked over to Hinata.

Kurenai was crouching down so that her head was even with Hinata's. "Just have more confidence in yourself and don't panic. That's when you start making mistakes." Hinata just looked at her feet and nodded her head. Kurenai sighed. "Tsuande says that Sora is a former student of hers, and that she will keep you safe-"

"Neh, Neh, you don't have to worry about that. I'll keep Hinata safe." Hinata looked up at Naruto, pale eyes wide and full of awe. Naruto, however, was unable to see them; he was grinning so wide that his eyes were closed. Suddenly Kurenai had a very bad feeling about this. What if the he broke her heart? The poor girl had been through enough; the last few months especially had been an emotional roller coaster. What would happen if the boy accidentally hurt her?

"Neh, Hinata, lets go," he said, grabbing her arm and starting to pull her off towards Sora and Tsuande. Hinata just let herself be dragged along, as if she wasn't really sure what was going on. Kurenai sighed. Tsuande said that Hinata's inclusion had been instrumental in gaining Sora's participation. Without her, Sora wasn't going to take Naruto. No matter how much it worried her, she had to let Hinata go. She would just have to trust to fate.

Naruto stopped short a few feet away from the two women. "Every three months," Sora said firmly.

"Every week," Tsuande said just as firmly.

"That's over 150 reports. Every other month."

"Every other week."

"Fine, once a month. I am absolutely not writing anymore."

Tsuande sighed. "Fine, once a month, but you had better write every single one."

"Don't worry." Sora turned to Naruto and Hinata. "All ready then? Good, that means we can finally get this show on the road." She smiled at Tsuande and gave her a quick hug. "See you in three years Sensei."

Flashing another quick smile, she started to lead the threesome down the road, away from Hidden Leaf. Naruto and Hinata started taking quick glances back at the village over their shoulders. The reality of three years was finally starting to sink in and weigh heavy on their shoulders and hearts.

Sora turned around and started to walk backwards, waving at the three teachers who stood watching them go. "Goodbye Obaachan!"

"Don't forget the reports!"

"Every six months, I remember."

"EVERY MONTH!"

"Right, right, I won't forget!" And with that they were over the crest of the hill and out of sight.

Kurenai looked at Tsuande. "I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but are you sure this is a good idea."

Tsuande started at the place where had just disappeared. "It's either going to be exactly what all three of them need or an unmitigated disaster."

**Original Author's Notes**: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I really, really appreciate it, especially when I'm made so many mistakes. I have updated the first chapter with corrections, so now it doesn't make me look like a complete idiot (only a partial one). It wasn't so much the spelling errors that got me as much as the whole wolf thing. I just don't see how I didn't catch it when I reread it. I also had one offer for a beta reader, which I would love to have, but I can't seem to get in contact with her. All of the emails keep bouncing. So, until I can get a line of communication between the two of us, this is edited by me. I did a far more careful job this time and double-checked a lot of things, so there should be fewer errors. Still, if you find any, please let me know.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Hinata looked at the ground, up at Naruto and down at the ground again. She wanted to say something to him. It wasn't that she had anything specific in mind, but she wanted to be able to hold a pleasant conversation for a few minutes. It was more than she had ever been able to do before and it would mean so much to her if only...

"Neh, Hinata?" Hinata jerked her head up. She hadn't thought out yet what she would do if he talked to her. Oh no, what was she supposed to say?

She swallowed. "Hai, Naruto-kun?"

He leaned over close to her, causing her heart to speed up. "Does Sora- sensei seem a little...strange to you?" he whispered.

"Umm, ano, she, she seems nice, but, but..."

"Strange," he finished for her. "She doesn't seem like any kind of ninja to me."

Hinata had no idea what to say. "Ano, well, Hokage-sama seems to think that-" Hinata broke off when she realized that Naruto was no longer next to her. He had run ahead and was now walking next to Sora.

Sora looked down out of corner of her eye. The blond kid was staring up at her suspiciously. "Can I help you?"

They had been walking along in silence for nearly an hour. Sora was perfectly happy about this. It was a beautiful afternoon, the birds were singing, and every step she took was taking her father away from Leaf Village. She had already decided that when she three years were up, she was sending them back on their own and not stepping another foot inside a hidden anything village. Three years was what she had been given and three years was what she was giving. No more and no less. And absolutely no agreement to return as a shinobi. Things looked pretty good at the moment. But apparently her new apprentices didn't share that opinion.

"Are you really any good?"

Sora shrugged. "Yeah."

Naruto's eyes narrowed some more. "Better than Kakashi-sensei?"

"Kakashi?" Why did that name sound so familiar? "Who's he?"

Naruto's eyes went wide. "You don't know about Kakashi-sensei? Copy-ninja Kakashi? Tsa, I knew you couldn't be any good!"

Sora ignored him and kept rolling his name over and over in her head. Kakashi, Kakashi, it was such a familiar name and she couldn't help but feel like it meant something to her... Suddenly, she hit on it. She turned to Naruto. "Wait, Kakashi. Gray hair, gray eyes, always wears a mask over his mouth."

"Yeah, yeah, that's him. He's my team leader and everyone knows he's a genius."

Sora let out a short burst of laughter and kept walking. Naruto waited for her to explain, but it didn't look like she was going to. Sora could hardly believe it. Kakashi-kun, gods she hadn't thought about him in years.

"Oi, you didn't answer my question!"

"Hmm, what? Oh, about Kakashi." She shrugged again. "I think we'd probably be pretty evenly matched. I just recently started hanging around this part of the world again, so it's been a while since I've seen him fight." Naruto still looked very suspicious.

"Ano, Sora-sensei?"

Sora smiled down at the girl who had come to walk on her opposite side. "Hai, Hinata-chan."

"Umm, where are we going?"

"To my house. It's on the border, way up in the mountains. I've got a great view."

"And we're going to train there?" she managed to get out.

"Yeah for the most part. I might take you out exploring for a while. Haven't really decided yet."

"Oh." They continued walking in silence, Hinata fiddling with her fingers, Nartuo looking very disgruntled and Sora walking along with a slight bounce in her step as if she hadn't a care in the world. Finally Hinata looked up at her again. "Ano, Sora-sensei?"

"Yes, Hinata-chan?"

"Umm, ano, why was the Hokage-sama complaining about your clothes?"

Sora blinked and looked down at herself. She let out a short laugh. "Sorry, forgot I still looked like this." And she released the Jutsu and kept on walking. About five steps later she realized that he two companions were no longer next to her. She turned around to find them stopped in the road, staring at her. "What?"

Shinobi were sometimes on the...fringes of fashion, but Sora left them all behind. Neither Naruto nor Hinata had ever seen anything quite like her. She was tall, probably just a little shorter then Kakashi-sensei with black hair that reached down her back. The thing was, it had all done up into hundreds of small beaded braids, many of which were dyed red or purple. She was wearing a long black coat with large silver clasps, boots, fishnets, a short back skirt and a fitted red top which came up high around the back of her neck and plunged low in the front. The only thing she wore that indicated that she was a ninja was her fingerless gloves with metal plates sewn on the back. She didn't seem to have any forehead protector anywhere. There was a stud in her nose and several odd twists of metal working their way up the outside of her ear. Paired with her oval face and classic features, she made an odd picture.

"What?" she repeated.

"Ano, is- is that what you really look like, Sora-sensei?" Hinata asked hesitantly.

Sora looked down at herself and then back at the pair. "Generally. It tends to attract a lot of attention, so most of the time I transform when I'm away from home. Makes life easier"

"Hey, hey what do we have here?"

Sora rolled here eyes and gave her students a 'See what I mean' look. She plastered a fake grin on her face and turned around to face the men.

There were three of them standing about 15 feet away from her and smirking. They were muscular and clearly used to getting their way, if they way they leered at her were any indication. She continued to smile while inwardly she groaned. She hated assholes like this, leering at her. She continued to smile brightly. "Can I help you, gentlemen?"

Their smirks increased. "Actually, we were wondering if there was anything we could do to help you." They were coming closer and fanning out slightly around her. One of them, a rather bearish looking man with ruddy hair, came up close to her. She refused to step back. "A lone woman and two kids traveling without an escort can be in danger on these roads." He laid a clammy hand on her shoulder.

She quickly lifted it off. "Oh, I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Are you sure, sweetcakes? We would be happy to escort you wherever you're going." Another one who looked rather serpentine came up behind her and put his hand on her, grabbing and digging his fingers in. "Lovely young lady out here by herself dressed up like that is asking for trouble."

"What are you doing out her all by yourself anyway?" The third one asked.

Quickly she removed the man's hand from her hip and ducked out from within their circle. "Oh well, I'm just on my way home."

"And the kids?"

She was still hoping to get to get out of the situation without a fight. Saying they were her apprentices wouldn't work. They would decide to test their ability against her, thinking they could win easily and brag about how they had gotten an uppity little ninja girl from the leaf. She still had hopes for defusing the situation, but it had to happen fast. "My little brother and his girlfriend."

Naruto and Hinata paled. What was she saying? She seemed to be almost trying to dance her way out of the conflict. Naruto scowled. She couldn't be that powerful then. If she was she would have just fought them. He would have to protect them.

The third man finally took a good look at the two apprentices. "Hey look, the kids have Leaf forehead protectors. They ninjas?" Sora groaned inwardly. Damn it, she had forgotten to have the kids take those off.

There was no way to work around it. They might have been quiet when she called Naruto her brother, but he wasn't going to stand for her saying he wasn't a ninja. "Yes."

The man slowly started approaching Naruto and Hinata. "We'll then; maybe we ought to see what the kids can do. Give them a little real world training."

Naruto glared at him. "Bring it on! I can take all of you."

"Naruto-kun..." Hinata said as he stepped in front of her to keep her separate from the approaching man.

Sora held her hand up as if trying to placate them. "Gentlemen please. It's hardly nice to attack two partially trained young ninjas."

"Worried about your little brother?" The bearish man sneered.

"Say, if you're his big sister, then you must be a ninja too right?"

"Naw, little punk like her couldn't be in ninja." Said the man hovering over Naruto and Hinata.

"Yeah yeah, you're right. Probably can't keep a thought in her head long enough to even pull off a decent jutsu, can you sweetcakes?"

Sora's eyes narrowed, but her smile stayed the same. Insult her clothes, insult her virtue and she would brush you off. Insult her ability and threaten her charges? You wouldn't know what hit you.

She brought her hands together and ran quickly though a series of seals. Finally she stopped on ram and sing-songed "Chakra bind no jutsu." Light blue light with just a hint of purple started pulsing from her hands. With almost blinding speed, she rammed the palm of her hand into each of their chests. It was over in almost half an instant. The men simply dropped around her feet.

She smiled down at them pleasantly and nudged one of them in the side with her boot. "All of you out? Good."

With a small sigh, she transformed into a woman a few years older than Naruto and Hinata, with a plane kimono and an even planer face. "Come on you two. We have a lot of ground to cover before nightfall."

Naruto and Hinata were still standing there stunned. Actually taking a man, even a weak man, out with one blow was hard and to do it three times in a row...the Hyungs were able to do it because of their ability to stop to flow of charka, but this woman was no Hyuuga. In fact, to Hinata's eyes what she had done looked very similar to her byakugan. But how had she...

"Hey, are you two going to stand there all day?" Sora called out over her shoulder.

"Neh, neh, sensei..."

"You probably shouldn't call me that. I prefer not to attract attention on the road and two ninjas following me around calling me sensei is going to do just that. Call me Onee-chan instead; we'll keep pretending that you're my brother."

Hinata stared at her. Did this mean that she was going to keep referring to her as Naruto's girlfriend? She started blushing. How would she be able to handle that?

"NANI? Why to I have to be related to you?"

"It's the best ploy to avoid conflicts. And take those head protectors off."

Naruto looked truly shocked. How could she expect him to do that? This was his symbol of his existence as a ninja. He had worked too hard to get it to simply stop wearing it.

"NO!" He yelled. Hinata cringed. She hated it when people yelled. She always felt so helpless. She wanted to be able to defuse the argument, to simply step in-between Naruto and Sora, but she realized that it wouldn't do any good. People tended to forget she was there even when there wasn't an argument going on. If there was an argument, she simply had no hope of being noticed.

Sora rolled her eyes, but kept the light humor in her voice. "You just have to take it off until we get home. I am simply trying to avoid having to fight more people than I have to."

Didn't the woman understand? He needed to bet stronger and fighting was the only way to do it. Otherwise how was he going to get people to acknowledge him? How was he going to get Sakura to see him as more than an idiot? How was he going to become Hokage? He only had two things that he needed to do: train and fight. Those two things were what he needed to do in order to reach his dreams. "But I wanna fight!"

She scowled at him. She stopped walking and turned to face him, her tone suddenly taking on a serious quality for the first time. "First of all, if the Leaf Ninja Academy is not teaching you that fighting should be avoided rather than sought then I am going to have to have a word with Obaachan. If you think that fighting random guys who harass us on the road will make you a better ninja than you are too stupid for me to train. Taking those men out would have proven nothing."

"But you took them out!"

"Only because I had to or they were going to attack you."

"I could have handled it! Those idiots were no match for me."

Sora felt like she was going to scream. "Look, kid, I have fought more people in my lifetime then most of the Shinobis back at that village of yours. If I say it's not going to do any good, it's not going to do any good. Don't just attack anyone. Save yourself for the enemies that count. That's the first thing. Second, as long as you are studying under me you will follow my rules, my guidelines and my orders. That includes avoiding conflict and calling me Onee-chan in order to do so. Clear?"

Naruto just snorted and turned away. She stared at him for a few minutes. Then he reached up and took off his forehead protector, stuffing it into his bag. Sora decided to accept that as a yes.

They stopped in a village with one small inn where they rented a room for the night. The room was plain, but clean with dark wood walls and a single large window that looked out onto the forest. Sitting in their room eating the last of their dinner, Hinata decided to try her courage at asking Sora a few questions. In order to bring her back, they probably needed to know why she didn't have a village.

"Ano, Sora-sensei?"

Sora sighed. She was beginning to see a pattern in Hinata's speech. "Hai, Hinata."

Hinata tried to think of an innocent sounding question. "Umm, where are you from?"

And so the questioning begins, Sora thought. She had to be careful here. She didn't want to lie to them as she didn't want to give them reason's not to trust her. But there were things that they would never be able to know. "No where in particular. I've traveled a lot."

"Ano, so then, who, who trained you? I mean, I, I know that Hokage-sama..." She just sort of trailed off.

Sora smiled and wondered how she was going to be able to boost the girl's confidence. "I had one teacher before Obaachan and after I finished training with them, I traveled around with a partner for a while."

"Where is he?"

Sora let out of short snort. "She's married. About three years ago she met a man, fell in love and they ended up married and farming of all things. I still can't believe it." She smiled. "They have the sweetest little girl on the face of the earth."

"Really?" Hinata asked with interest. Naruto just sat there and kept eating his ramen. This was an extremely boring conversation.

There was a far away look in her eyes. "Two years old and cute as a button. They're my family and they offered to let me stay with them, but I wasn't about to become a farmer." Her voice suddenly got very quiet. "Too many things left undone. "

Hinata looked confused. "What do you mean, Sora-sensei?"

Sora smiled. "Everyone has things they want to get done. I have a few more things left on mine to get done before I settle down." Hinata was relieved.

She looked back at Hinata and smiled, immediately brightening. "How about you, Hinata-chan? What's on your to do list?"

"Huh?"

"What do you want to with your life?"

"Ano, well...I, I guess I want to..." Hinata stopped and looked up at Sora with wide eyes. "I don't know. I guess I want to be a good clan leader."

"You're the heir?"

"Hai, but...I, I'm not..."

"I see. You don't think your good enough."

Hinata nodded and continued to stare at the floor. "I'm ju-just too..." She looked over longingly at Naruto who continued to eat, not paying attention to either of them.

Shit. She was in love with them. Sora must have been blind to not notice it before. She groaned inwardly. This was going to make everything so much more complicated. Shit shit shit. Why hadn't anybody warned her? She was going to have to figure out a way to get this out of the girls system and fast. Otherwise they were going to be untrainable.

"What about you, Naruto?"

"Huh?" he said, looking back at them over his shoulder.

"Naruto pay attention. Your teammate over here started quizzing me on where I was from in a move I am sure had to do with making me a leaf shinobi. While you two are not going to succeed in that, you are still leaving to work of trying up to her, which isn't very nice. We then started talking about things we wanted to do with out lives. It helps me to know your goals when I train you, so out with it. What do you want to do?"

Naruto grinned broadly. "I am going to be Hokage!"

Sora stared at him. She had managed to get the overly shy and unconfident heir to one of the most powerful bloodlines in the world who was in love with a loudmouth kid with a demon fox sealed in his navel and delusions of becoming Hokage. And they were hers for the next three years. She was going to kill Obaachan when she got the chance.

Naruto finally decided that learning how to do that thing Sora had done to the men on the road would be worth the embarrassment of having to ask a girl.

"Neh, neh. Teach me how to do that thing you did."

"The charka bind?" She chucked down at him from were she sat perched in the room's only chair. "You've got a long way to go before you can do that."

"Ha! That was what Jiriaya said about teaching me rasengan. But I got it!"

Sora arched her eyebrows. "You can do rasengan?" Naruto nodded his head vigorously. Sora was impressed, but she wasn't about to let it show. "Did you learn it all at once, or did you take it in steps?"

Naruto scowled. "Well, steps, but I did them really quickly."

"Good, then you should be able get though the list." She reached for her pack and started rummaging through it. She always carried the list with her, although it wasn't particularly useful. She hadn't opened it in years, but just knowing that it was a reminder of who she was. Who she had made herself to be.

She hadn't initially planned on using it with them. It was heavy duty training which built the foundation for far more advanced things. Still, she was hoping it would do three things: calm Naruto down, build up Hinata's confidence and force them to work out any personal stuff before she started really working with them. If working side by side trying to figure things out together didn't cement their relationship into some form, nothing would.

She tossed the scroll in the air once before catching it and handing it to Naruto. "Hinata-chan, you should look at this too," indicating that the girl should move closer to the boy. Hinata hesitantly scooted across the floor to where he was sitting cross legged. Hesitantly, she looked over his shoulder.

The boy turned the scroll over in his hands, peering at it. "What is it?"

"A list of 100 things every ninja should be able to do," Sora said with a grin. "My first teacher gave it to me to learn. Now you get to."

"Huh?" Naruto said, and opened the scroll while Hinata looked over his shoulder. Across the top was written "100 basic skills" and it was followed by a list of 100 different techniques. Some of them were charka control techniques: climbing trees and walking on water were both there. Some were actual Justus, but none of them were anything he had ever learned or even ever heard of. What the hell was 'Dishes no Jutsu?" As they read down the list, something suddenly occurred to Naruto.

"Neh, neh, Sora!"

"I told you to call me Onee-chan for a reason-"

"Yeah yeah, but...there is nothing you can use in a fight in this."

"No, of course not."

Naruto jumped to his feet. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'OF COURSE NOT!?'"

"It's a skill set. These are 100 things you need to be able to do in order for me to teach you anything." She shrugged, something that was really starting to irritate Naruto. "Until you learn those, there is nothing I can really do."

"NANI? But some of these things don't make any sense!"

"Oh, if you have questions, I'll be glad to help you. But I'd like for you two to work through it on your own."

"So once we're mastered it, we can start combat training?"

She seemed to consider this for a second. "Yes."

"All right! I'll get through this list in no time!"

She smirked and learned back in the chair. "Don't you mean 'we'?"

"Huh? Nani?"

"You both have to get through the list before I'll teach either of ya'll anything."

"NANI?!"

"Well I certainly don't want to have to teach the same thing twice. Makes more sense for me to just wait and teach you both at the same time."

"But I already know how to do some of this stuff."

"Then teach Hinata." She waved her hand at them in a dismissing gesture. "You two sort it out between yourselves. I'm going to bath and go to bed." She got up from the chair and left the room, presumably headed for the bath house.

Hinata and Naruto looked at each other and then at the scroll he held in his hand.

"Neh, Hinata. Do you know how to climb trees?"

**Original Author's Notes**: I gave this chapter to my beta on Saturday but it is now Monday, but I haven't heard from her since. While waiting for it to be returned, I re-read it and ended up adding another two and a half pages. At this point, I started thinking about trying to add in the parts that hadn't been betaed into the betaed version, got fed up and just decided to go ahead a post, as I hadn't done so in nearly a week. So now, poor Chibi Dragon has probably betaed a useless chapter for me. I owe her my apologies and my thanks.

This chapter is, unfortunately, mainly set-up for Naruto and Hinata's training and focuses almost entirely on Sora. As this is probably boring for most of you, I apologize, but it is necessary for the rest of the story.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of those who reviewed! It really makes my day and encourages me to keep going.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you!


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"OK, so you concentrate your chakra on your feet and then just run up the tree."

Hinata blushed and looked confused. They were standing in the forest a few miles away from the village where they had spent the night. At Naruto's insistence, they had woken up early and left to train. He was determined to get through this list as soon as possible. There were 100 things to learn and if they did one task per day it would take them 100 days or just a little over three months. It was still a long time to spend learning things he couldn't use, but he had three years to learn the charka bind.

Hinata looked at the tall tree in front of her. She was determined; she could do this. She had done other exercises similar to this back in leaf with her team. Plus she had been gathering chakra to her hands since the moment she had been old enough to be put into a training uniform. This was just a matter of gathering it to her feet, she kept telling herself.

Naruto watched as Hinata ran towards the tree. Suddenly, she caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye, looking at her expectantly. She hit the tree, took ten steps up and then slid down, landing with a large thump.

Suddenly Naruto had the feeling that this was going to take longer than he had hoped.

They both stared at the tree. She could tell that he had thought she would do better. She had thought she would do better. Hinata started to feel even more nervous. What if she couldn't do this?

Naruto frowned. Maybe she was just warming up. "Neh, it's okay Hinata. Try again."

Hinata bit her lip and nodded. Standing up, she walked a few paces back and concentrated her chakra. Then she started running. She made it seven steps up the tree before she overdid it and got pushed off. Quickly she slashed into the tree. She hadn't even made it up as far as the first time. She felt pathetic.

Without waiting for him to tell her anything, she got up and ran towards the tree again. Seven steps. Again. Five steps. Seven again. Ten. Eight. Over and over again she tried. She tried to block out the fact that he was there. He was making her so nervous she couldn't concentrate. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't forget that he was there. This was just like how she would mess up in front of her father.

No matter how many times she tried to climb the tree, she never got beyond ten steps. Panting, she sat down on the ground.

Naruto was puzzled. He had thought girls had some sort of special ability to climb trees. Sakura-chan had done it the very first time she tried.

"That's weird, Sakura-chan didn't have a problem..." His voice trailed off as he though it over. Hinata sat on the ground crushed. She knew that he liked Sakura. He had been chasing after her for months, trying to get her to go out on a date with him. She could see why he liked her. She was pretty and smart. Hinata couldn't do anything right and Naruto himself had described her as dark and strange.

She could see it in his eyes; the disappointment at how poorly she was doing. She was holding him back, preventing him from moving forward. Without her along, with things going the way that the Hokage had wanted, he would have easily completed the list. With her, he might not even be able to complete it in three years.

Suddenly, it all became too much for her. He was so close and she wanted so badly to be able to prove to him that she could do this. But she just couldn't. She wished the ground would just come and swallow her up. She was just as useless here as she was at home. She was stupid, she was useless, and unfitting to be both heir to her clan or a shinobi of the leaf. She suddenly broke down into tears.

Naruto was shocked. He tried to remember if he had ever seen a girl cry before; he couldn't think of a time. Yes, Sakura had cried a couple of times when she had gotten hurt on a mission, but that was nothing like this. Hinata was shaking hard, her sobs coursing through her entire body. Her face was buried in her hands, but Naruto could see the tears leaking through between her fingers.

Tentatively he walked towards her, one hand extended to touch her lightly on the shoulder. She jerked back at his touch, which brought her flat up against the tree. She slid down it and buried her face in her knees.

Naruto crouched down in front of her. "Neh, Hinata..."

"I'm sorry. It's just," she said, choking on her tears. "It's just that I'm, I'm holding you back. I'm here, but- but I'm useless. I c-can't do an-anything but h-hold b-back my friends."

Naruto didn't know what to say. Was that really what she thought? That all she did was hold people back? Suddenly he remembered the day of the chuunin exam. The day that everything had happened. He had beaten Neji and then Gaara, controlled the demon inside him and saved Sakura. But when he had woken up that morning, he hadn't been sure he was able to do anything. Something about talking to her had made him feel better, more confident and more like his old self again. Now all he had to do was figure out how to do the same thing for her.

"Neh, Hinata-chan?" Hinata looked up from where her face had been buried in her knees. She sniffed loudly and stared at him with wide eyes, startled by how close he was. "Remember when you kept picking yourself up off the ground when you fought with Neji?" Hinata looked confused, but nodded. "Well, that tree is easier to face down than him." He grinned.

"B-but I failed."

Naruto shook his head. "Nah. You kept getting up. He was the idiot who kept kicking you when you were down."

Hinata stared at him, unable to fully take in what he was saying. She remembered him yelling at her to stand up during the chuunin exam. She remembered watching him from the very first days she had entered the academy. He had been a truly terrible student, always disrupting the class or sneaking out when he was board. They were both failures; people the got stared at for not being what they were supposed to be. But while it had crushed her, it had never seemed to dampened his spirits.

Until the day of the tournament, when suddenly she was able, for a few brief moments, to speak to him without stumbling over her words.

"Naruto-kun..." she breathed softly.

"Neh, Hinata-chan, it took me a few days to get the tree climbing thing. Maybe that's all you need."

Hinata looked up at him as if she was frozen in time. He wanted her to keep trying. He thought that she could do it. Did this mean that he didn't think she was useless? Suddenly she felt like laughing, something she hadn't done in a long, long time. She felt strangely happy. His presence no longer felt like a hindrance, but a help.

She stood up and walked a few yards away before turning and running towards the tree. She made it about twenty feet up the side of the tree before she lost control over her charka and started to slide back down. Quickly she slashed into the tree and pushed away to land neatly on her feet.

It was at least twice as far as she had gone before.

"All right!" Naruto yelled. "Now were getting somewhere. Try it again, Hinata-chan!"

She smiled. It was a start.

Sora watched the pair from the branches of a nearby tree. It was almost ten and she really should have all of the moving on their way at this point. However, she couldn't bring herself to break them up. They were making good progress. Amazingly good progress.

She supposed that it had mainly been a barrier of confidence rather than skill which had prevented Hinata from climbing the tree. In order to utilize her blood limit she would have to have excellent charka control already. Still, the loudmouth's encouragement seemed to have been what she needed. She would be climbing trees no problem by the end of the day.

She smiled and shook her head. Still, climbing trees was one of the easiest exercises on the scroll. It would be interesting to see how they fared with some of the more difficult ones where neither of them knew what they were doing. Heaven knows they frustrated the hell out of her when she had been forced to do them.

It seemed strange to her that her life would suddenly circle back to that time. She had always thought that she would train someone, but not under these circumstances and certainly not this pair. Now that she had the chance to watch them, she was almost eerily reminded of her fist teacher and her husband.

She sighed and leaned her head back against the tree. The light danced through the leaves over her head. Nanashi-sensei, I hope this is what you would want.

Naruto and Hinata sat facing each other on the grass underneath the tree. Hinata had figured out how to go about 50 steps up the tree before she lost control. That put her near the top of all but the very tallest of the trees. Now they were going through the list and checking out how many of them they knew. Naruto was disappointed to realize how few he knew.

"Eh? All my training and I only know three of the things on the list?"

Hinata bit her lip and looked at the ground. "I know two."

"Well, then that leaves you 95 to go." They looked up to see Sora leaning up against the tree. "Considering how well you two did on the first one it shouldn't take you too long."

Naruto regarded her suspiciously. She was being entirely too nice.

Sora walked over too them and looked down at the scroll. "Which ones do you know?" she asked.

As Naruto was still staring at her, Hinata answered. "Naruto knows the tree climbing, water walking and chakra spinning. I know how to push the chakra out from my hands and I can sort of do the level restoration."

Sora was surprised. Level restoration was one of the harder ones on the list. It was a medical technique used to restore homeostasis in selected portions of the body. "Really? Level restoration? Do you want to be a med nin?"

Hinata blushed. "One of the med nins started to teach me. I can't really use it, but the idea helped me make healing balm."

"That stuff you gave me after my match with Kiba?" Naruto asked. "That stuff kicked ass!"

Sora hit him on the top of the head. "Watch your mouth, kid." She turned back to Hinata. "Do you have any of it with you?"

Hinata reached for her pack and quickly pulled out a small jar. Sora took it and quickly unscrewed the lid. Dipping her thumb and forefinger in, she rubbed them together feeling the consistency of the ointment.

Hinata watched in fascination as Sora's eyes suddenly went from a blue- violet to a deep purple and then suddenly became shot through with lines of sliver. She had never seen eyes like that before. Then, just as quickly as it had happened, her eyes reverted to normal.

"Naruto's right, this is good stuff." Not only were the ingredients obviously carefully prepared, the chakra that had been put into the balm had some of the neatest arrangements she had ever seen. She would have to get the girl to Yasu at some point during the next three year. They would get along like two peas in a pod.

Suddenly Sora's thoughts ground to a halt. Why, all of a sudden, did training them seem more like a pleasure than a chore? She had barely had them under her care for a day. Surely she hadn't gone that soft.

"Ano, Sora-sensei?" Hinata looked at her questioningly. All of a sudden she had just started staring off into space.

Sora shook her head to clear it. "You should call me Onee-chan, too Hinata- chan. Just too be safe." She handed the jar back to Hinata then smiled at the two of them. "Come on kids. It's noon and we're not getting any closer."

Naruto scrambled to his feet. "Any closer to where?"

Sora smiled. "Home. Where you get to train all day, every day."

**Original Author's Notes**: A few people have commented on my use of Japanese terms and so I just figured I would clarify when I use them and when I don't. Basically, it just depends on what the dialog sounds like in my head. Therefore techniques and characteristic phrases, such as Naruto's 'Nani?," are in Japanese. Because I am so accustomed to hearing nani screamed in shock, I tend to use it. Part of the challenge I am trying to fulfill had to do with keeping in the spirit of the manga and in my mind this is part of it.

Also, just as an FYI, I try to put when I hope to post the next chapter up on my profile.

**Reposting Author's Notes**: This is very similar to how I use Japanese terms in my rendition of the sequel, Twice Shy. When I first started reading fanfiction, I abhorred the use of Japanese terms in an English story regardless of setting… in my mind it made both the Japanese and the English seem… silly.

But it actually does help it flow better in my mind. I don't ever watch anything but the Japanese voiced versions of any anime, so I've become very used to suffixes and lots of phrases. It also helps that I've taken Japanese classes…

I don't use suffixes everywhere… just to add emphasis and flavor.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

They were walking along the road, Sora in front Naruto and Hinata trailing behind, when suddenly Sora turned off the road and went into the trees. Naruto and Hinata looked up from where Hinata had been trying to explain, unsuccessfully, how she pushed her chakra out of her hands.

"This way, you two," Sora called out from the trees. They looked at each other and then followed their teacher into the forest.

"Ano, Onee-chan?" Hinata called out.

She started as Sora's voice came from behind her. "Hinata-chan, do you start every question with 'ano'?

Hinata blushed. "Ano, why-" She stopped herself as she realized that what she had said.

Sora laughed, but it was a kind laugh that invited Hinata to join in. "Why?" she prompted.

Hinata swallowed. "Why did we leave the road?"

Sora smiled. "This is the way to my house. The next village is a few more hours down the road, but it will take less time to get home if we just go directly. From here on out, we can go ahead and use speed. Depending on how fast ya'll can run, we should be there by the end of the day. "

Naruto for one was relieved. Sora had been forcing them to walk along 'like normal people' for the past five days, claiming that it was essential to keeping the three out them 'under the radar.' It was almost painful for Naruto to travel this slow.

Jumping up into a tree, Sora looked down at them. "You two coming?"

The followed her up into the trees and across the forest, farther away from the road and further up into the mountains. The scenery flashed by as they jumped from tree to tree, blurring greens and brown together.

Suddenly, they stopped near the base of one of the mountains next to a broad cliffbase. "Here we are," Sora said. She started to take her gloves off, puling back the Velcro straps around her wrist and tugging them off with the teeth.

Naruto looked left and right, even behind him, in confusion before turning back to Sora. "Huh? There's nothing here."

"That's because you just don't know where to look," Sora said with a smile. Shoving her gloves into the pocket of her jacket, she walked up to the side of cliff and started walking along it, looking up and down as if she was trying to find something on the face of the cliff. Suddenly she stopped and faced the wall. Stretching her arm up over her head, she shook her shoulders out quickly. Then she brought her hands together and started running through a long series of hand seals. Suddenly she stopped and started drawing symbols down the face of the cliff, beginning just above her head and ending at her waist. Naruto and Hinata watched in astonishment as her fingers left a trail of glowing purple behind it. Sora quickly pressed her hands together, made two quick seals and slammed her palms into the wall on either side of the line.

A door sized portion of the rock began to move backward into the cliff face, as if Sora was pushing it. Then it suddenly swung to the side, revealing an opening into the side of the mountain. Sora dusted off her hands and went inside.

Naruto stared at the entrance, then looked at Hinata to see if she knew what to make of it. "Hello? Is it just me or are ya'll unusually slow today?"

"Hey!" Naruto yelled and stomped off into the hole, Hinata trailing behind. "What the hell do you mean slow" he said, then started as the rock slid shut behind them. Naruto heard Hinata take a sharp breath behind him. "Hey! What's going-"

He was cut off by lights flickering on. Exposed bulbs overhead buzzed in the sudden quiet of the cave. Sora smiled. "Welcome home!" she said. Turning, she started to walk up a seemingly endless flight of stairs.

"Ano, Onee-chan, when you said you lived in the mountains, I didn't think..."

"Hinata, we really need to work on the number of times you say 'ano.' In any case I don't live in the mountain. I live on it. But this is the only way up."

Naruto looked around at the stone walls. "Why would anyone build a house like this?"

"For security. As I said, the only way up is through this passage; the area around the house is rather cliffy. It's a nearly impossible position to attach on mass. But the main thing is that because there is no path leading up to a house, no one looks for a house."

"Huh?" Naruto said.

"The house is surrounded protected by an illusion. Unless you know it is there and what it looks like, you can't see it. Add to that the fact that most of the house isn't even visible from the ground."

"An- why did you build a house with so much security."

Sora smiled at the bitten off 'ano.' "I didn't build it my first teacher did. She said that if you were going to call something hidden, might as well actually make it hidden." She was grateful that it was Hinata asking these questions and not Naruto. She told herself that when she had to address questions about Nanashi-sensei, she would simply answer them and not swerve. However, she was finding it harder to do then she expected.

Hinata was puzzled. Things were very rarely given the word hidden as part of their name unless they were the capital of a country. "What's the name of the house?"

"Generally, it's referred to as 'Sora's house.'" She turned to look at them over her shoulder and grinned. Hinata swore she saw pain in her eyes, but she couldn't be completely sure. "Her plans never really materialized. Originally this was going to be the base for a new group of ninjas."

"Nani? A new group of ninja's?" Naruto asked.

Sora nodded. "She didn't agree with the way the villages were being run. She hoped that by founding her own, she would be able to change things."

"What sort of things?" Hinata asked.

Sora shook her head. "It's not really important. She was never able to start up the group."

"Why not?" Hinata asked.

Sora's eyes clouded in sadness. "She died young."

"How did she die?"

Sora again shook her head. "Look. I will never lie to either of you. You have to be able to trust me in order for me to teach you. However, there are some things I either can't or won't tell you. Those you have to simply let go."

Hinata and Naruto were startled by her response. It was so straightforward and serious that it almost seemed out of character. Perhaps that was the reason they accepted it so easily.

They followed another curve in the stairwell and suddenly had their eyes filled with sunlight. Climbing up the last few steps into the open.

They seemed to be on some sort of plateau. They had emerged in the middle of a small field covered in low grasses. The field sloped upwards gently, dotted with trees until it reached the house. Hinata and Naruto stopped and looked in amazement.

The house was built into a tall wide crevice in the face of the mountain. Three sides pressed up against the mountain wall with the fourth spilling out in a series of terraces. It was a traditional house with wide covered porches and green tile roofs. There was nothing ornate or fancy about it, but it was huge, rising at least four stories into the air.

"That's your house?!" Naruto yelled.

Sora looked at him ironically. "I told you a whole group of ninjas were supposed to live here. She built it for 150 people." She snickered. "If you think the house is impressive, check out the view behind you."

Naruto and Hinata turned and gasped. It was spectacular. To either side of them were the mountains, rising to snow covered peaks. In front of them was the valley, laying out a patchwork of farmland as far as the eye could see.

"Wow!" yelled Naturo, running towards the edge of the field. Looking over the edge he realized that it simply dropped off. They were on a plateau at the top of the cliff. There were hundreds of feet between him and the ground. "This is so cool! Hey Hinata, come check it out."

Hinata's eyes went wide and she stayed rooted in her place. She shook her head vigorously. She could tell from where she was that they were very high up off the ground. Naruto was bending over the edge in a way that made her very nervous. What if he fell?

"Hinata." She looked up at her teacher. "When Yasu had Miki two years ago we warded the whole perimeter. He falls off, he falls four feet."

Hinata smiled shyly, grateful that she hadn't had to confess her fears out loud. Yasu must be the partner who Onee-chan had mentioned. Hinata wondered what Yasu must be like.

"Onee-chan? Are we going to meet Yasu?"

"Eventually. Her and her husband live near the village we bypassed. The next time we go to get supplies we'll spend the night at her place." Sora turned and started walking up towards the house. "Come on, Naruto!" she yelled over her shoulder. Naruto looked up and scrambled up to run after them.

"Neh, neh, Onee-chan! Do you live in this whole house by yourself?"

"I only live in a portion of it. The rest I keep shut up. I'm afraid the two of you are going to have to clean out a couple of rooms for yourselves." She walked up the few steps to the huge front gate. This one she simply took a key out for and quickly turned the lock.

It wasn't a castle, but it was close. It was obviously not built to impress. There was no grand entrance, no intricate ironwork. It was a house large enough to accommodate a small crowd and that was it. The gate opened into a large courtyard, overshadowed by the house. The slate floor was scratched from weapons practices in the past. They crossed it and stepped up onto the first porch. Sora slid open the door and walked inside.

"Home sweet home," she said. The room was large and airy with a staircase on the far side leading up. Looked more like a modern family room pulled out someone's home than the entry room for a fortress. "Run upstairs and dump you stuff then come back down. Then I'll show you around."

With a muttered hai, they ran upstairs. Quickly she moved to a table in back of the couch and grabbed two framed photos. Knowing she only had seconds until they came back, she shoved the pictures into a drawer. It would have to do until she could move them to her rooms.

Her eyes stopped on a photo of her and Obaa-chan just a few weeks after they had started traveling together. They were sitting at the counter of some restaurant, leaning together over plates of food while the chef took their picture.

"Is that the Hokage-sama?" Sora looked up and scolded herself for not hearing the two of them comeback.

"Hai. I'm a little bit younger than ya'll here. This was taken just after I convinced her to let me travel with her, so I would have been thirteen."

Naruto eyed the picture suspiciously. "Is that really you."

"I know, it doesn't look much like me. I didn't start developing my own sense of style until shortly thereafter." She laughed softly. "If I remember right, the day after that picture was taken I snuck out and got my nose pierced. Obaa-chan was pissed."

Naruto looked down the table of pictures. "All these all your friends."

"Most of them are the same people, but at different ages." She started pointing out pictures. "This is me as Yasu when we were in our teens, the two of us at her wedding and us and her daughter, Miki."

Naruto looked from one picture to the other. Sora stayed basically the same, but the other woman went from being a sex kitten with heavy white curly hair spilling over exposed shoulders to a woman with a bun and a little girl in her lap. "That's the same person?"

Sora shrugged. "She calmed down a great deal after she had Miki?"

Hinata held one picture up to her. "Who's this, Onee-chan."

She swallowed. "This is me and my first teacher. The one who built the house."

"She's beautiful. What was her name?"

She had to get it out. She had to make them think that there was nothing out of the ordinary. She breathed in. "Nanashi." She looked over to gauge Naruto's reaction and was pleased to see that there wasn't one. He was still staring at the pictures of Yasu and her. "Come on, you two. I'll show you the house."

The house was even bigger than it looked from the outside, but Sora only lived in a few rooms. She showed them the kitchen and dinning room (which she said she never used), the living areas and the library (which she rarely used, but they were going to be using a lot). The bathhouse was at the top of the house and Sora spent a good fifteen minutes lecturing Naruto on how he was going to peep on her or Hinata in the bath while Naruto yelled he was not a pervert and Hinata blushed. Finally, they came to the bedrooms where she stopped.

"This is my room," she said, pointing to the door. "Unless there is an emergency, you are not to come in here. And by emergency I mean Emergency. Foreign ninjas invading the house. Not, 'I can't sleep' or 'I'm out of deodorant and I need to borrow some of Sora's.' Clear?"

They nodded. "Good. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a few things I need to attend to. Just pick out any room along here and start cleaning it out. I've used most of them for storage of various thing, so you'll need to move things into empty rooms. Okay?"

They nodded again. "Great. Just knock when you have the room cleared out." And with that she stepped into her room and closed the door.

Naruto and Hinata stood there and stared at the door. Naruto snorted. "What crawled up her skirt?" Hinata giggled.

"I heard that!" Sora yelled.

"I don't care if you did!" Naruto yelled back.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata said softly, not expecting him to hear her.

"Huh? What Hinata?" he asked. Hinata blushed and shook her head. "Well might as well get started looking at the rooms. He grabbed her arm and lead her down the hall. He had done it a few time in the past week and it always made Hinata blush. It was close to her dream but not quite. When she dreamed, they were holding hands and they were walking side by side, not her trailing behind.

They opened the first door they came to and stood in shock. It was dark and dusty and full of boxes. Obviously it had not been opened in years. Moving down to the second door they discovered the same. In fact, further investigation proved that all of the bedrooms were in some state of disrepair.

"What the heck is this? Hasn't she ever cleaned?" Hinata thought about trying to calm the boy down, but then realized that she didn't even know where to begin.

Naruto looked over at the girl hovering in the doorway. He hadn't really thought much about it when Obaa-chan had assigned her to the mission with him. In fact, he hadn't thought about her much period the whole time they'd know each other. But after their talk before the chuunin exam and the past week of training together everyday, he was finding that she was kind of nice in a very quiet sort of way. He realized that not only did he like people like her, but he liked her herself.

"Neh, Hinata." She looked up from where she was twiddleing her fingers in the doorway. He grinned at her, which made her heart stop. "Wanna' start moving stuff out?"

**Original Author's Notes**: It has become rather painstakingly clear to me that I need a beta reader. The problem with betas and me is that if you leave the chapter with me too long, I start adding and changing things around which, while not reducing the number of errors, renders the betaed version useless. So, if there is anyone out there interested in beta reading this for me and can get it back for me within a day or so from when I give it too them, I would be eternally grateful.

Thanks to Lady Onuk who let me know that somehow the corrected version of chapter one was mysteriously not posted. If that was bitching, then I'm glad you bitched.

Also Manga-lover123 asked me where the name Nanashi came from. I picked it for it's meaning, which is 'no name.'


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Hinata lifted the box off of the table and was nearly pushed over backwards by it's weight. Naruto had to drop his own box to grab the other side of hers. They stood across from each other, hands just barely brushing as they held the edges of the box.

Hinata's heart began to speed up. She blushed, pulled her hands back away from his and ducked her head. "Gomenasai!" she whimpered out softly, her embarrassment easy to hear.

Unfortunately, easy to hear did not mean that Naruto was able to hear it. Someone more sensitive would have smiled and helped her carry out the box. Naruto however, didn't understand what Hinata was apologizing for and wasn't afraid to ask. "What for?"

Hinata looked up at him with wide eyes. What was she apologizing for? For trying to pick up to heavy a box? For making him help her? For accidentally touching his hand? She really didn't know.

Naruto, thankfully, didn't press the matter. Shoving into the 'weird things Hinata does' category, he asked her took the box from her and carried it across the hall into the already packed room. Hinata scrambled to pick up the box he had dropped and put it away.

Naruto dusted his hands off and looked at the room, now packed to the ceiling with boxes. "Well, that was the last of it," he said. They had managed to clean out two rooms by stuffing two other rooms to the breaking point. They were empty, but still covered in dust and cobwebs.

"Ano, do you think we should clean them out before we get Onee-chan?" Hinata asked.

"She said to know when we were finished emptying it out and we're finished emptying it out." He was more than a little irritated by the woman. It had been a week and she had taught them nothing, just handed them the scroll, and told them to start teaching themselves. Some teacher she was.

Naruto went and banged on Sora's door. "Oi!, we've finished clearing them out."

"Good, now you can clean them," Sora yelled from inside.

"Eh! When do we get to start training?"

Sora slid the door open. "Right now," she said and started walking down the hall. "Which two did you choose?"

"Ano, these two," Hinata said.

"Hmm... good choices. You'll have great views once the windows get cleaned off."

Naruto glared at her. "I thought that we were going to train."

Sora rolled her eyes. "Impatient, aren't you? What's skill number 24?"

"Nani?"

"The scroll Naruto. What's skill number 24 on the scroll?"

"Oh." He stuck his hand behind his head. "I think it's in my pack."

Sora rolled her eyes again. "Baka... In the interest of time, I will tell you that the 24th skill is Clean floor no Jutsu."

"NANI? You're going to use jutsu to clean the floor?!"

"Better to use it to clean the floor than kill someone."

There was deadly silence.

"Look Naruto, I know you're frustrated. I know you want to train. But right now the only thing you know how to do is beat people up. You want to be Hokage? It's not about being the most powerful ninja in the village. It's about being the best. There's a difference between them."

"What's the difference?" He yelled at her, but without his usual spirit.

Sora smiled softly. "Hopefully, by the time our three years are up, you'll have learned that. For now," she said, grabbing him in a headlock and rubbing his blond hair, "you just need to know that I'm doing these things for a reason and follow my directions."

"Hey, get off of me!" Naruto wiggled and yelled.

Releasing him with a giggle, Sora walked over to Hinata. "Now, the key behind this technique is to create a flat plane of chakra between the dirt and the floor. The two seals are dragon and hare. After executing them, slide your chakra out underneath the dirt. Next, retract the chakra along with the dirt on top. Watch..."

Stepping out into the hallway, she made the seals, said the name then lightly placed her hand down on the floor. The whole floor flashed purple for a second, then glowed spotless. At Sora's feet was a small pile of dirt.

"Well that's the basics of it. It works on most flat surfaces, so you can do the walls and the widows as well. There is a more advanced version where you eliminate the dirt once you are done, but that's a little beyond your reach right now."

"Ano..., wouldn't it be easier to just sweep the hallway?"

"Not if you are using your chakra efficiently. Trust me, by the time you start trying to clean all of the floors in the house this size it's well worth it."

"Heh, when was the last time you did that?" Naruto asked from across the room.

Sora glared at him, but decided not to start another fight. "Do you have any questions?" No reply. "I'll be in the kitchen. Come get me if you need a hand. You'll probably want to hurry. It's almost eight o'clock. If you wait much longer, you won't have anywhere to sleep."

She left the room. A few seconds later they heard her steps going down the stairs.

"What kind of teacher is she anyway? Who tells ninjas to clean floors?" Naruto yelled down the hall.

Hinata just stood there. Had Naruto not been listening? Sora had told them why they were doing the exercise: it was a chakra manipulation skill. She looked at him, puzzled. Was he always this bad of a listener?

She looked at the floor. She couldn't tell him that. He had always been an inspiration to her, loud and harsh yes, but in an admirable way. It never occurred to her that she might ever find him lacking in some way. But he hadn't seemed to listen to a word Sora said.

Quietly she sat down in the corner and started to work on the jutsu. She was used to making sharp punches with her chakra, not thin sheets. It was frustrating to try and maintain the smooth plane. Furthermore it was hard to place the sheet just on top of the floor so that it grabbed all of the dirt up. She kept having some dust left of the floor.

Across the room Naruto muttered to himself. This was so stupid. Jutsu's for cleaning floors had to be the stupidest idea he had ever heard of. But he would show that woman! "Ha! Mastering such an useless jutsu is a piece of cake for the future hokage!!" But every single time 'the future hokage' tried, he just ended up with the floor scratched up and dirt being blown up in his face.

Finally, Hinata decided that she needed help. She had been trying for hours to get it right but she was still unable to get all the dirt up off of the floor. The rest of it seemed to be in place; she could hold the sheet of chakra flat and roll it up to bring the dirt back to her. But she always left dirt behind. Onee-chan had said that she would answer questions, right?

Hinata got up from the floor and slipped past an oblivious Naruto. Walking quietly down the hall, she found the stairs went down. There was a light on in the kitchen and Hintata could hear someone singing. She quietly looked through the open door.

Sora was cooking something and singing along with the sappy love song that was coming out of the small stereo on the counter. She was dancing along exaggerating the movements as if she was making fun of the song more than anything else. Hinata smiled. Suddenly she seemed like a teenage girl. Hinata frowned. She wondered how old Sora was.

"Ano, Onee-chan..."

"Hinata-chan, I am not turning around until you say it again without the ano." As she was still facing the stove she obviously meant it, but her tone held a joking quality that let Hinata know she was half teasing.

Hinata smiled, her confidence boosted. "Onee-chan."

Sora turned around with a smile. "Hai, Hinata-chan?"

"I'm having trouble with the jutsu. I keep leaving dirt behind."

Sora wiped her hands off on a dishrag. "Let me see." She watched as Hinata tried to clean off a wide patch of the kitchen floor. The girl almost had it, but she wasn't using her chakra forcefully enough to get all of the ground in dirt up.

"That's impressive. You have really good control." Hinata blushed. "The only thing is that you aren't using your chakra aggressively enough." She knocked her hand on the floor. "How many coats of varnish do you think are on this floor?"

Hinata was very confused. "I don't know."

"Seven. I know because I put all of them on there. Now, how hard do you think that varnish is?"

"Pretty hard?" Hinata said hesitantly.

"Harder than ground in dirt?"

Suddenly Hinata realized where all of this was going. "Hai."

"So you could use more chakra to pick up the dirt without worrying about wrecking the floor. Speaking of which, that's what Naruto is doing, right?"

"Ano..., it's a bit scraped."

Sora rolled her eyes. "Meaning he's probably gouged it all up. You go ahead and go upstairs and practice gradually increasing the amount of chakra. Also, try curling the sides of the sheet up just a little but before you roll it back. The dust won't escape out of the sides then."

Hinata smiled and nodded. Sora watched as the girl quietly walked out of the room. Considering how fast she was going through things it would only be another hour or so before she completed the task. Sora heard loud angry curses coming from upstairs and sighed. Naruto on the other hand might take another day.

She put the kettle on.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

It took Hinata another hour and a half to figure out how to clean the whole floor without leaving anything behind. She was oddly proud of the small clump of dust that was sitting at her feet. Naruto stared at her in shock. Then suddenly he was on his feet.

"Neh, Neh, you can do it Hinata? Can you give me some hints?"

Hinata was awed. He would ask for her help. Even when he wouldn't ask Sora for help, he was actually asking her!.

"Sure, Naruto-kun," she said, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and staring at the floor.

"Really? Let's go into the other room where the floor is still dirty. Once again grabbing her arm he hauled her out into the hall. Suddenly he stopped short. Hinata peeked around his shoulder.

Sitting on the floor in front of them were two piles of bed linens, they packs and two covered trays of food. In between the trays there was a note, which Naruto grabbed to read.

Kids,

My guess is that when you get this, Hinata will have figured out the jutsu and cleaned out the first room. As it is no doubt very late and we have had a rather long day, I suggest that both of you turn in. Towards that end, I have already cleaned the second room. Tomorrow you two can work on teaching Naruto using some of the other rooms upstairs.

Good job. Sora

Naruto finished reading the note and handed it to Hinata. While she read it, he sat down on the floor and started looking through the food on the trays.

"Eh? No ramen?!" he yelled, disappointed. Grudgingly he began to eat the food on the trays. Hinata knelt down opposite him and started looking through her own tray. The food was fairly basic, miso, rice, a few dumplings and some chicken, but when Hinata took her first bite, it was surprisingly good. "Neh, Hinata." She looked up from her food. "How did you do the floor cleaning thing?"

Hinata blushed and looked back at her tray. "Ano, Onee-chan helped me. Before I wasn't using enough chakra to get all of the dirt up." She paused staring at the chopsticks in her hand. "Maybe you are using too much chakra, since you are scraping the floor," she added hesitantly.

"Hmm." Naruto seemed to consider this for a second before nodding firmly. "You're probably right," he said as he went back to eating. Hinata looked at Naruto in astonishment. She couldn't believe what she had just done.

"Which room do you want, Hinata?"

"Ano, I don't care."

Naruto stood up and starting carrying piles of futons and blankets into the two rooms. "Here, why don't you take the one you cleaned."

Hinata nodded and picked up her bag to take it into the room.

"Goodnight Hinata," Naruto called out over his shoulder as he walked down the hall.

"Naruto-kun?" His room was right next to hers, so why was he leaving.

He turned and looked over his shoulder at her.

"Ano, where are you going?"

He grinned at her. "I'm going to keep training. Hopefully I'll have it before you and Onee-chan wake up tomorrow."

"Oh." She was ready to drop and he was still able to train. She smiled at his determination. "Goodnight, Naruto-kun." He waved at her and kept walking down the hall.

She went inside the room and started laying out her futon. Looking over, she saw the scratched up section of floor that Naruto had been working on.

She smiled.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Sora awoke in the middle of the night to a string of curses coming from the floor above her. Damn the boy was loud. She rolled over and put her pillow over her head.

It gradually started to penetrate through her head that he was still up and working on the jutsu. She lifted the pillow up enough to check the time. It was two in the morning. Was Naruto that resolved to learn the jutsu? She had rarely come across someone that determined.

She smiled and snuggled back down into the blankets.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

The next day Sora and Hinata would find Naruto curled up sleeping on an immaculately clean floor up on the fourth floor. Pleased with their progress, Sora had explained that the next thing they should learn was Dishes no Jutsu. Same idea, but more advanced as the dishes were more delicate and not quite flat. As usual, Naruto protested and Sora had knocked him over the head.

Once they had gotten a hold of the dishes, Sora had moved them on using chakra to slice vegetables. Then to heat water for cooking. Then using chakra to dry their clothes. Naturally, Naruto struggled a bit with this one. He burned a dozen bed sheets before he figured it out).

And so the days began to pass. They gradually started to check off more of the techniques on the scroll and life at the house fell into a rather predictable rhythm. It was driving Naruto crazy, but Hinata was enjoying it. Training was difficult, but so far she hadn't been asked to do anything that required fighting. She was gradually loosing some of her nervousness around Naruto. She was beginning to hope that these days would never end.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

The men sat cloaked in darkness around a large circular table. None of them really trusted any of the others and they sipped their sake carefully, tasting for poison in every drop. Still they knew that they would be able to accomplish far more with the assistance of the others then they would be able to alone. Striking out on your own, even if you were willing to deal with the hassle of subordinates, was incredibly messy. Orochimaru had proved that.

Finally, one of them spoke.

"They have moved the boy out of the village."

"Where?"

"We are not sure. Approximately a month ago a woman entered Leaf village and left a few hours later in the company of two gennins, one of which was the boy."

"And the other?"

"They heir to the Hyuuga Clan."

"What of the woman?"

"No one seems to know anything about her. She obviously knows the Godaime Hokage, but as to where she has taken them, no one in the village seems to know. Rumors say they left on a training mission for three years."

"Three years. They would have the same age that you had when you left, Itachi."

The man showed no reaction. "Do we know the woman's name?"

"Sora is the only name we have been able to come up with, but that could easily be a pseudonym."

"Sora?" questioned one of them suddenly.

"Yes. Do you know a Sora?"

"Know of perhaps. Years ago in the west there were two women who were some of the most widely feared ninja's of the time. They were some of the most efficient killers anyone had ever seen."

"Mercenaries?"

He shook his head. "Not quite. They had their own moral code which no one was able to really decipher. They certainly took jobs, but they were known to turn down many lucrative offers as well. And they were known to kill potential clients if they were offended by what they asked them to do."

"And one of them was named Sora?"

"Yes, the younger of the two, an incredible ninjutsu and taijutsu user. If it was not for their morals, I would have suggested them for recruitment. However, no one has heard a word about them in over three years. It is as if they disappeared off the face of the earth."

"How would the Leaf recruit such an ally? Could they have hired her to protect the boy?"

"I'm not sure. My memories of them are old and faded. Perhaps she was hired."

"It does not matter. Any one of us should be able to overpower them. For now all we need to worry about is finding where she has hidden the boy."

"Agreed. Itachi, as the acquisition of the boy has become something of your project, why don't you spearhead this."

The man's red stare cut across the table. "Fine."

**Original Author's Notes**: Apparently there was a bit of confusion around the gender of Sora's teacher. Nanashi is a gender non-specific name: it can be used for either a male or female. In this particular case, Nanashi is a female. To answer Hikariko's question, when I said "her teacher and her husband" I meant Nanashi and Nanashi's husband.

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed and especially for everyone's offers to beta for me. This is chapter was betaed by David5 with much appreciation from me. Thank you David!


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Naruto was suddenly woken up, just like every single morning for the past three months, by music. Loud techno music with a strong, pulsing beat that shook the floor could be heard all over the place. He could also hear the lead singer blaring out lyrics about love and broken hearts and, only slightly softer, he could hear Sora singing along.

He rolled over to stare bleary-eyed at the clock. Six thirty am. He groaned and buried his face in the pillow. They had been up until one the night before, while he tried to get a hold of some stupid chakra weaving thing that was on the scroll. It was skill number 60, but they had only completed about 40. Three months and he was only less than halfway done. He had thought that he would be finished by now. But the tasks had gotten surprisingly harder. The floor cleaning exercise was piece of cake compared to what she was having them do now.

On top of that, she had hauled them into the library one day and informed them that they were to begin school studying again as well. Then she had started piling them up with books to read. Mainly they were history books. Lots and lots of history, with dates and people to remember. Every morning when they would come down for breakfast she would be there and would start quizzing them. Who was the third Kazekage? What was he known for? What was his strongest influence on the development of the Hidden Village of the Sand? Why did he...?

And that was all of their training. No sparring. No drilling. No new battle techniques. Nothing but that stupid scroll. He was starting to hate Sora. She was just like most of the people back in leaf. She didn't think he was worthy of training.

He had tried to prove to her that he was strong enough to start training in the advanced stuff. He kept trying to challenge her to get her to see how strong he was. She wouldn't even respond to a challenge properly. For the first three weeks she had simply told him he was stuck with her, rolling her eyes and ignoring his antics. Then one day she had held up her hand in a strange sign.

"See this, Naruto? This is one" She changed the sign. "This is two." She changed again. "This is three." She smirked. "And this is what happens if you get to three. Silence no Jutsu."

And all of a sudden Naruto couldn't talk. It was as if he had laryngitis and no matter how hard he tried he was unable to move his vocal cords. Hinata had stared in shock.

"That is a technique from west of the mountains. Mainly it is used to keep guards from raising the alarm during an invasion as it can be used from a great distance with a minimal amount of chakra. It also works for silencing brats."

Naruto tried to decide which he hated more, the jutsu or the woman who performed it. He decided that what he really hated was that she wouldn't teach it to him.

He sighed and rolled off the futon and onto the floor. He was at an impasse. She obviously wasn't training him enough, but at the same time he couldn't figure out how to get out of it. He was under orders, so he couldn't go back home. He challenged her yet again and she shrugged it off.

Suddenly, an idea came to him. If she wasn't going to train him, he would have to train himself. There had to be scrolls on how to do different techniques in that library, right? If he searched for them, he was sure to be able to find some that he could use, like when he had learned the Kage Bunshin.

He grinned. What exactly did she have in that library? .

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Sora was getting more than a little tired of waiting for them go come to breakfast. She briefly considered using chakra to dump water all over their beds, but that would only give Naruto something else to bug her about learning.

She sighed and looked out the kitchen window. She was started to see Hinata in the courtyard. She was crouched low, practicing punching and barely moving across the slate floor of the courtyard. Sora had never seen her practice fighting before. She paused and frowned as she watched Hinata move. Turning the burners on the stove off, she headed outside.

Hinata closed her eyes and concentrated. Memories of training sessions with her father started to come back to her. You thought of yourself as an unstoppable force. There was no stronger clan than the Hyuuga. Their bloodline was the most powerful and no one could stand before it. They could force everyone to their knees.

She imagined the targets: where she could hit her opponents in order to stop chakra flow. She had been told that she didn't need to worry about precision at the beginning; the important thing was that she built up her power. She had never gotten to the point were she was allowed to concentrate on precision. Her power had simply never been great enough. Still, she kept trying, hoping for the day when she would be good enough.

Opening her eyes again she stepped back and resumed her stance. I am strong and you will not move me. Breathing in she started to run through a series of punches designed to work their way along all of an opponents chakra holes. Even in her minds eye, she missed half of them. She sighed and began to start over again.

"What was that?"

Hinata stopped at the voice and looked over to see Sora sitting on the stairs, mug of tea in hand. There was a clear note of sarcasm in her voice. Hinata looked at her feet ashamed. Of course Onee-chan would be able to tell how horrible she was.

"Was that the great jyuken style that the Hyuuga clan invented in order to utilize their bloodline?"

Hinata felt like crying, but she was determined not to. She knew her execution was an insult to the form, but she hated when it was pointed out.

Suddenly she realized that Sora was standing in front of her, bending down so that their heads were even. "Let me guess. I am an unmovable mountain. None are stronger than me and all who challenge shall be vanquished!" Sora's voice was deep and mocking, obviously parodying some old martial arts master.

Hinata stared at Sora, who rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Hinata-chan, don't take this as an insult, but you don't exactly seem like the unmovable mountain type." When Hinata just continued to stare, Sora sighed. "Look, I'm not saying it's a bad form. It probably works very well for a lot of people in your family. But it doesn't fit your body type and it doesn't fit your personality."

Hinata was amazed. Sora thought that the form was the problem, that it was what was defective, and not her. This was awful; she had to set her right. "No, it's me. I can't do the form right. I'm just not talented enough."

"Really? You can't learn the form because you're not talented enough?"

Hinata nodded, looking back down at her feet.

"Bullshit." Hinata looked up shocked. "What? It is bullshit. Do you think I'm blind, I know how good you are. I've seen how hard you work at the jutsus and how well you are able to master them. Maybe you were able to convince yourself that you don't have enough talent to master the form, but you are not going to be able to convince me."

Hinata stared. Never before had she received such a loud vote of confidence. Naruto had cheered her on at the chuunin exam, but all he had told her was for her to do her best. Never before had anyone told her that they thought she was actually talented. She felt like crying, but she realized that Sora was talking again.

"Now, I don't know whatever special Hyuuga form that is that you're using, so I can't help teach you that. However, I generally use Shina-To-Be, which works well for people who are fast and lightweight. I could teach you that."

Hinata couldn't believe it. Thoughts were running through her head at 100 miles per hour. She actually wanted to teach her a whole new style, one the Hyuuga clan didn't use. She couldn't remember an heir ever doing anything other than the traditional style.

'Of course it's not easy. It's all about movement and flexibility. There's a lot more acrobatics in it than most other forms. Mostly it's done in the west, so no one out here will have seen it, which is an advantage."

For generations the Hyuuga clan had been learning this form. It was specially designed to work well with their bloodline. You had to get in close to use it, which made it dangerous and difficult to master, but once mastered it was almost unstoppable.

"It would take a little bit of effort to figure out how to incorporate the use of your bloodline in, but I'm sure we could do it. What do you say?"

"But, but I'm a, I'm a Hyuuga," Hinata managed to stutter out.

God damn it! This was why she hated clans, bloodlines and things associated with villages in general. Here was a girl who probably didn't even want to be a ninja, who would probably be better off being something like a doctor or a teacher. But because of a cruel trick of birth, she had to be heir to a backwards clan that was so set in its ways that it wouldn't even consider that maybe not everything worked for everyone.

"Yes. But you're a Hyuuga for whom tradition doesn't work. Sometimes things have to change."

"But no one has ever..."

"Are you going to have children?"

"Hopefully..."

"Then are you going give your children the exact same type of childhood you had just because it's Hyuuga tradition?"

Hinata thought about the seal on her cousin's forehead. About sleeping alone in her big room, curled up into a small ball. About lectures on family responsibilities and expectations and her inability to measure up. About the endless days of drilling when most girls her age were out making friends. About living her life isolated, away from the village, in the ghost filled halls of the Hyuuga house.

She gently shook her head. "No."

Sora sighed and looked at the ground. "You and I are strangely similar. I was raised into a destiny I didn't want to fulfill. We were probably brought up in very similar ways. I decided to bust out. I can't say I suggest doing the same things I did, but I think a little radical thinking on your part would be good."

Hinata looked at her puzzled. "What do you mean you don't recommend the way you did it?"

Sora shook her head. "That is for me only." She flashed a grin. "One more question."

"Hai?"

"Is that haircut a Hyuuga tradition?"

Hinata blushed and shook her head.

Sora gave an exaggerated sigh in mock relief. "Hallelujah."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

He had been relieved when there was no one in the kitchen. Scrunching his nose up at the eggs and potatoes Sora had left in the skillet, he rummaged through the cabinets for some ramen. Putting the kettle on, he glanced out the window to see Sora talking to Hinata. Whatever they were talking about, it looked serious. Good, it looked like they would be busy for a while. He stuffed the ramen into his mouth and bolted up to the third floor.

Naruto was rather proud of himself for thinking of the whole library thing. The place was huge. Apparently Nanashi had been of the opinion that a library was a key part of her new ninja community and had amassed an enormous collection of books. It filled a large wide room with tall shelves pushed closely together. There was bound to be something in here he could use.

Reading the tags posted on the end of each shelf, Naruto was able to find a section entitled 'Ninjutsu Praticum.' He had no idea what practicum meant, but he was defiantly interested in ninjutsu and it wasn't history. He started scanning through the titles. The Theory and Execution of Summoning Spells. One Hundred Basic Water Jutsus. Zen and the Art of Kunai Maintenance. The Complete Guide to Fire Jutsu's: Basic through Advanced Techniques. Aha! Now they're talking!

Naruto grabbed the book and moved over to a table. Opening it up he flipped directly to the back where the advanced techniques were. He frowned in disappointment when there were only five techniques listed, but her immediately brightened when he started reading the descriptions.

Fire Cliffs no Jutsu: This technique produces a thin wall of fire up to fifty feet high. For all but those closely associated with fire, this wall is impossible to pass once executed. It is used to divide up army and erect defenses around buildings. Significant historical uses include...

Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah. Naruto stopped reading and started scanning down past the boring part, including the warning statement. He looked at the list of hand seals. Damn there were a lot of them. Sighing he started running through them. Ox, dragon, ram, hare, ram again, horse...

A hand came down and slammed the book shut. "What the HELL do you think your doing?!" a voice screamed.

Naruto slowly looked up to see a Sora with eyes on fire with anger. Oh shit. Busted.

Once Sora had convinced Hinata to start training taijutsu, she had gone to get Naruto. The boy needed to learn some of it too anyway, although she certainly wasn't going to teach him the whole form. It was a woman's form after all. But they could start out working on some of the basic exercises together.

She had been impresses when she found the boy in the library. Maybe he was finally starting to take the academic stuff seriously. It would indicate reaching a level of maturity in which he understood that he wouldn't be able to be Hokage without knowing there things. However her heart had stopped when she saw what he was reading.

No one but her or Yasu and her husband had been living here for the last 14 years and before that it had only been Nanashi or the occasional guest. So it never occurred to her to take out any of the more dangerous books from the shelves. She had simply never expected anyone to start looking through them to find the most dangerous jutsu's possible.

She couldn't believe what he was going. How could any be so stupid as to try a technique like this unsupervised and without learning the lower ones? In a library no less! The worst part was the terror which had sliced through her to the core the moment that she saw what he was reading. Naruto had more than enough chakra to perform this technique but not enough control. If she hadn't come at just the right time...

She waited for Naruto's reply, glaring at him down in his chair.

She was so stupid, not teaching him anything and then getting mad at him when he went off and taught himself things. He was a shinobi after all and a shinobi was measured by his skill in battle. He wasn't getting any better here while she made him read history and wash dishes. "Well you weren't teaching me anything," he grumbled.

What the hell did he think she had been doing in the past three months? "Not teaching you anything? Apparently I haven't been if you were so stupid as to try this!"

He jumped up on his chair so that their heights were approximately the same. "I'm not stupid!"

"Really? Read the warning, Naruto." She opened the book again, and jammed her finger into the page. "It says right here, 'This is a dangerous, highly advanced fire technique. No one inexperienced with mid and upper level fire techniques should attempt this jutsu. This should only be attempted under suitable supervision as improper execution of this technique will possibly result in highly volatile and uncontrollable fires.'"

And she would have been able to do virtually nothing to stop them. They would have killed him almost instantly and ripped through the rest of the house. She might have been able to save Hinata and herself, but that wasn't a guarantee. He would have been...

She slammed her hand on the page again. "Would you like to tell me what your plan was if the fire got out of control?"

Why the hell wouldn't she acknowledge that he was strong? And why wouldn't she let him get stronger? Didn't she understand that he had to? There was a whole village he get to acknowledge him and few people he had to protect. "I wasn't planning on doing it in here! I was just learning it so I could learn something because you aren't teaching me anything!" He started to throw a punch at her, but she caught his wrist in her hand.

She lost it. The combination of terror and anger had overwhelmed her and all she could think of was pounding into the kid's brain just how stupid he was.

"You want to fight me?" she asked, grabbing the back of his collar with her free hand and starting to drag him out of the room. "You have been pushing all my buttons since the moment we stepped out of that goddamn village of yours. You seem to think that you are some sort of genius and at this point I am too pissed off at you to worry about your goddamn confidence!"

She slammed open the front door and started moving down the stairs, dragging Naruto behind her as he kicked and screamed. Hinata looked up in surprise from where she was practicing the chakra weaving. Sora pulled Naruto out into the middle of the courtyard then pushed him away, letting him land on the ground. "You think that I'm such a horrible teacher? You want to fight me and prove that you can kick my ass?" She screamed at him. "Fine then. Let's see what you've got."

Naruto scrambled up from the ground, fists clenched at his sides. "Goddamn it!" he yelled, before crossing his fingers. He would show her! "Kage Bushinn no Jutsu!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Instantly the entire courtyard was filled with shadow clones. Glancing around, Sora assessed the situation. There were probably a little over a hundred of them. He wasn't operating with kybui power yet. She smiled as they all drew kunai and charged blindly at her with a scream. She had discovered that he had never really put much effort into his formal training, relying on sharp wits, power and determination to get him through. Unfortunately for him, she had all three of those, plus years of formal training and battle experience.

Bending her knees, she jumped into the air, letting a dozen clones slam into each other underneath her. She twisted her body in the air in a graceful spiral before landing in the middle of another group. She immediately began to destroy every one that came into her range.

Hinata half hid herself behind a column as she watched. She had never seen anyone summon so many clones at once. However, even more incredible was the way that Sora was moving. Dear god, was that the Shina-To-Be Form she was supposed to learn?

It was as if the laws of physics no longer applied to her. Sora flipped onto her hands then swept her feet around, taking out three more clones. Landing on her feet, she jumped again, twisting high in the air. She released a shower of kunai that killed a dozen more. Landing again she began a series of flips, punches and kicks, twisting and turning, moving down close to the ground one minute and gliding through air next. But always, always moving.

It was the most beautiful form Hinata had ever seen, almost dance like in its execution. She would have sworn that Sora was floating, not even really touching the ground. Half the time Hinata wasn't even sure what it was that Sora had done to destroy the clone. She would get near it and suddenly it would vanish in a puff of smoke.

Surely Sora didn't expect her to master that?

As the last of the clones charged her, Sora simply parried with her left hand, then wrapped her hand around his wrist and pulled down and out, sending him somersaulting into the floor. Turning back to him, she smiled. "Ready to give up?"

Naruto scowled and began to start the Rasengan. He was not going to lose to her. He wasn't stupid. He knew that she had a lot she could teach him. He still had to get her to teach him the chakra bind. If she needed proof that he was worth training, he would give it to her. He would make her acknowledge that he was able to learn the advanced stuff. He jammed all the power her could into the ball of charka and ran towards her.

Sora simply dodged. She was impressed that he was able to do the third stage Rasengan that well, although he was using two hands instead of one. The fourth had always done it with one. Plus he didn't know what situations he should use it under. He seemed to know no basic strategies. The boy had raw power and a few impressive techniques. She darted quickly to the side as he yelled and tried to tag her once again. He shot past her and crashed into on the columns.

"Watch where you're throwing those things or you're going to hit Hinata!"

Sora stood back and watched him. He was definitely trying to come up the plan. Maybe he wasn't quite as much the idiot as she had originally thought.

Damn it! Unless he was able to figure out a way to trick her into staying in one place, he wasn't going to be able to hit her. Plus she was just standing there calmly watching him while he was giving her everything he had.

He summoned more clones, then quickly dropped to the ground and transformed into a stone. He crawled towards her as she quickly destroyed the clones, but he kept one hanging back so that she would think it was him. As long as he was able to get one of her legs, she should slow down enough to be caught. Crouching a few feet away from her, he began to form the Ragensan.

Sora stared at the clone standing a few dozen yards away. There should have been one more. He had summoned twenty four, but she had only destroyed 23. That meant that there was one more plus the actual Naruto. The question was, which of them was standing in front of her.

Suddenly, he began to charge and she shifted into a better fighting stance. Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw another Naruto coming towards her low to the ground, Ragensan spinning in his hands. She only had an instant to figure out what was going on. She launched herself into a back flip, kicking the clone as she went over and narrowly dodging the real Narutos hand as she grasped the back of his jacket. Continuing the motion over, she landed on her feet and threw Naruto over her head towards the far end of the courtyand.

She refused to let herself give into the desire to rest her hand against her knees and pant. Damn it, he shouldn't have come that close to getting her.

Hinata's eyes were wide with fear. She didn't know what to do. How could she get them to stop this?

On the other side of the courtyard Naruto stood up and glared at his opponent. He had no choice: Kuchiyose no Jutsu. Summoning Gama the boss should do the trick. He would squash her flat. Then they would see who she thought was worthy of learning the advanced techniques.

Growling, he brought his hand up to his mouth and bit his thumb.

Sora realized instantly what he was going to do. Shit, she couldn't let him summon anything here. Who knows what he could summon. Anything large would destroy the courtyard, or worse, and it was already going to take a lot out of her to repair the damage done by the Rasengan. And with his chakra stores plus those he could possibly get from the Kyuubi...she had no choice but to stop him.

Her eyes darkened from light blue-violet to a deep, vibrant purple. She watched Naruto paint a stripe of blood across him palm. He moved his hands into the first seal.

Instantly she was across the floor, slamming her palm into the center of his chest. He choked and sputtered as she quickly bound all of his chakra.

Catching him behind the neck, she laid him down on the ground. She leaned over him, but didn't look at him. When she spoke her voice was so quiet that Naruto could barely hear her. "If you summoned the kyuubi's chakra now you could probably overwhelm the bind. However, the fact of the matter is that you're ten years younger than I am with far less training. Other than trying to overwhelm me with power or trick me, there isn't much that you can do to attack me. That might work, but I don't think either of us wants to find out."

She stood up and walked away up into the house.

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut. Damn it, damn it, damn it! Who the hell had told her? What gave her the right to know about that? He felt ashamed and humiliated. The whole fight had lasted less than ten minutes. He had failed. She hadn't acknowledged him.

He looked over and spotted Hinata. She was still standing behind the column staring at him. He couldn't read the expression in her eyes.

She swallowed and started to walk over to him. She knelt down next to him. "Can you move at all?" she asked.

"Me? I'm fine just taking a little rest!"

Hinata smiled. Leaning over she picked up his head and slid her arm underneath his shoulders. She swung his arm around her neck and slowly stood up. "Let's get you up to your room."

**Original Author's Notes**: This was an extremely had chapter to write and I am still not entirely happy with the way it turned out, so please let me know what you think.

Thanks again go out to David who actually knows how to spell all the techniques in Japanese, which leaves me in awe. It should be noted that I added a bit after I got this back from him and that any mistakes are probably me adding things and not him. Thank you David!


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Goddamn it!" Sora swung her fist into the wall, leaving a large splintered hole. That wasn't the way she should have handled that. The boy had caught her off guard and sparked her temper. She hadn't meant to go after him quite that badly, to cut him down so thoroughly, but how could he have been so stupid?

She sighed and sat down at her desk. She rested her temples on her hands and closed her eyes. Dear god, what had made her think that she would be able to handle this? She had jumped into it too quickly. The moment she had realized who he was she hadn't been able to say no. But at the same time, she wasn't ready to teach anyone. Sure she knew the material, but she didn't have the patience or ability to teach.

She looked through her fingers to the picture of Nanashi-sensei on her desk. The woman was remarkably beautiful with dark rich hair and skin combined with wide startlingly blue eyes. They seemed to spark with an inner fire, like kindling that was always just on the verge of starting the blaze. There was so much determination and so much kindness in those eyes.

If it had been her instead of Sora who had found Naruto in the library, she would have known exactly what to do. She wouldn't have lost her head and started screaming at him. She would have remained calm and stopped him from doing anything and then carefully explained to him why he couldn't go off and learn dangerous jutsu unsupervised. She wouldn't have lost her temper, hauled Naruto outside and pounded him into the ground.

Memories of her father echoed back to her, the condescending voice ringing in her ears. "I suppose it would be too much to ask for you to be number one among among your peers despite your blood. You are quickly proving yourself to be useless." He had left her panting on the floor, frantically trying to draw breath into her lungs.

She was no better than he had been. True, her actions had been done out of fear and anger rather than cool calculation, but the results were the same. Here she was, mimicking the actions of the one man she truly hated. Tears started forming in the corners of here eyes. She had never felt so guilty in her life.

Piled on her desk were five letters from Tsunade, all asking where the hell her reports were. She had sent the first one off, but had missed the last two. She just couldn't figure out what to say. That she sucked as a teacher? That her and Naruto were at each other's throats?

She wanted to do right by the boy; after the life he had lead he deserved that. Still, she didn't understand him. Why did he always have to make everything a battle? How could she train a boy who questioned everything she said?

She couldn't help but think that it was something that Nanashi would have grasped easily. When she had picked her up and taken Sora with her on her wanderings she had known exactly what to do. She was warm and caring, encouraging her to come out of the shell she had locked herself into tightly. She was the perfect teacher and surrogate mother.

Sora couldn't be any of those things. She wasn't a teacher, she was a warrior. She had no experience with children except changing Miki's diapers. Not exactly good experience to use in teaching a thirteen year old kid. She had always assumed that she would never have to really deal with children. Hell, she had worked hard to never make any commitment of the type that would lead her to having to deal with them. For all that she admired and wanted to be like Nanashi, she would never share her teacher's passion for children. Any life that might have lead Sora to marriage, children or even just a community had died along with Nanashi.

Sora looked back at the picture. The two of them were sitting on a bench in a garden in the spring. Nanashi's eyes sparkled with warmth and humor and a slight bit of the trickster as she smiled into the camera. A kimono clad Sora sat next to her, smiling slightly, but with haunted eyes. It had been taken just after Nanashi had taken her on as a student.

"I'm sorry Nanashi-sensei. I'm not you. I don't know if I can do this." .

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Hinata paused outside of Naruto's door with a lunch tray. She knew she should just knock and go in, but something was forcing her to hesitate. They had just managed to get him back into his room and onto his futon. Standing next him, watching him struggle to breath in and out, she hadn't know what to do.

He seemed so little like his usual self. The spark had gone out of his eyes, and he had been silent during the entire struggle to get him up the stairs. Normally, the thrill of being that close to him, with his arm over her shoulder and his side pressed against her, would have overwhelmed her. But all she could feel was worry.

So she had done what she always did and retreated.

She had hated herself for doing it. It seemed like there should be something she should say, something she should do for him. But she hadn't been able to think of anything. No matter how many times she had been in that same position, she still had no idea what to say.

But if there was one thing that she had learned from Naruto, it was to keep on fighting. No matter what happened, he had never given up and never really let her give up either. Memories of him from their school days, the chuunin exam and the past few months training together were burned into her memory, ready to surface whenever she was facing her worst doubts.

So she had come back. Even though she still had absolutely no idea what so say to him, she was standing outside his door trying to get herself to knock.

So, very softly, she knocked. "Naruto-kun?" she called out. No answer.

She tried again, slightly louder. Still no reply. So, very quietly, she slid the door open.

Afternoon sunlight filtered through the window. It was a warm yellow light, but the room was so still that nothing could warm the room. The air wasn't moving, causing even the dust that was reflecting the light to appear frozen.

"Naruto-kun?" she asked again, a little louder.

He was lying in exactly the same position he had been when she left, spread out on his back, unseeing eyes staring up at the ceiling. Naruto's mind had gone numb. He was used to life knocking him down. He was used to picking himself back up. That had always been his method of operation. But now, he was suddenly wondering what he should do.

He hadn't been strong enough. The fight had been a joke, even he could tell that. She wasn't going to train him; she was going to just keep on giving him stupid things to learn.

Because she knew. She knew about the demon inside of him and because of that she looked down on him, just like everyone else. It was certainly nothing new. It had been happening is whole like. But it always hurt. And for some reason, this time it hurt more than usual.

Hinata moved into the room and set the lunch tray down on the floor, kneeling beside the bed.

"Naruto-kun, I brought you some lunch. Hopefully some of the chakra bind has worn off now, so you should be able to eat." No reply. "I made you some ramen. Not the instant kind, but my own." He didn't move a muscle.

She couldn't give up. She just had to keep talking. No matter how hard it was to push the words past her lips, she had to keep talking. "I learned how to make it a few years ago. Father doesn't like for me to cook because it's beneath a lady of my status. Plus, I always make a mess. I try to be neat but something always seems to startle me and I spill something. When I tried ramen, Hanabi startled me and I dropped the bowl on her head. Father was furious."

Still no response.

Hinata bit her lower lip to hold back her tears. This wasn't Naruto. The Naruto that she knew never would just lay here like this. The Nartuo she knew would be up and yelling at Sora, struggling to negate the effects of the jutsu. Was he this upset over Sora beating him? But he had always picked himself up before.

"Ano... Naruto-kun? Are you okay?"

He just continued to stare at the ceiling.

"Naruto-kun, I know this morning was rough, but please!" She bit back a chocked sob. She couldn't stand to see him like this. "She wasn't very nice, but I don't think she meant it to turn out that way. She's been so nice to me-"

"She's been training you."

The sudden sound of his voice startled Hinata so much that she actually jumped. It took a minute for his words to sink in. "Naruto-kun..."

"She won't acknowledge me. Most people won't. I don't know why it hurts so bad this time." He squeezed his eyes shut in pain.

Very gently, she laid her hand on top of his. "I acknowledge you. I don't care whether you can beat her or not. To me, you'll always be the one who does what I can't. You'll always be the one who never gives up."

There was a pause. Then Hinata felt him turn is hand under hers so that they were palm to palm. She blushed as he gently squeezed her hand.

"Why wont she?" he asked.

Hinata shook her head. "I'm sorry Naruto-kun. I just don' know. But..." She paused for a long time. When she spoke her voice was even quieter than normal. "I like her. She's hardheaded and kind of rude, but I can't help but feel that, in the end, she has our best interest at heart."

He snorted and put his hands underneath his head, taking his had out of hers. "What makes you think that? She just seems like a cranky, rude woman to me," Naruto grumbled.

Hinata blushed. "I am the heir to the Hyuung. Everyone looks at me like I'm a failure when I can't do something. She doesn't."

She looked at his face and waited for his reply, but it didn't seem like it was coming. With a small sigh, she moved the lunch tray closer to the bed. "I'll just leave this here in case you want any."

He closed his eyes again. "Arigato."

She looked down at him and resisted the urge to sweep the bangs away from his forehead. "I don't think that it's that she won't acknowledge you as much as she was angry. When Sora went to get you from the library, she was going to start teaching us a new taijutsu form. Maybe, if you ask her, she'll still teach it to you."

Naruto just turned his head away, his mood suddenly dark again. He didn't want to have anything to do with that woman.

Hinata bit her lip. "Please, Naruto-kun. I, I don't think that I can learn it by myself. Who would I practice with? Who would help me out? I don't know what I will do if you don't learn it too."

She stood up and crossed to the door. Sliding the door open, she stood framed in the doorway with her head bowed. "Please, just think about it." . . .

Hours after the sun had set, Naruto still couldn't sleep. Echo's of his conversation with Hinata ran through his head. Too much of what she had said rung true.

"She's hardheaded and kind of rude, but I can't help but feel that, in the end, she has our best interest at heart...I am the heir to the Hyuung. Everyone looks at me like I'm a failure when I can't do something. She doesn't."

She looked at Hinata differently than those who saw her as just the Hyuung heir. And while he didn't like the eyes that Sora looked at him with, but they weren't the same eyes as the villagers back home.

Suddenly one other thing she had said popped into his thought. "To me, you'll always be the one who does what I can't. You'll always be the one who never gives up"

And yet that was what he had been about to do, right when he was about to finally get what he wanted. She had been going up to get him to start taijutsu training. She had intended to start training him to really fight.

He was going to be Hokage. Convincing her to still teach him the taijutsu stuff would be easy.

He sat up in bet. He couldn't sleep with all of this going through his head and now that the chakra bind had worn off he was going to get some more ramen.

Pushing his feet into a pair of slippers, he shuffled his way down the dark hallway. At the top of the stairs he saw that the light was on in the kitchen. It was almost two in the morning so who the hell could be up?

He quietly walked over and peeped in. There was Sora sitting on the counter staring out the window. In her mouth was a spoon and in her hand was a large carton of triple chocolate fudge ice cream. She was wearing drawstring pants, a tanktop and an enormous fuzzy pink robe with flowers all over it. She paused mid bite to look over at Naruto standing in the doorway.

He was dressed for bed in shorts and a t shirt but his clear eyes indicated that he probably hadn't gone to sleep yet. She smiled. "Couldn't sleep?"

He nodded. "Here for some ice cream?" She offered him her spoon.

"No, I wanted ramen." He put the kettle on the stove and turned on the heat. He turned to the cabinets and opened to find a few more cups left. "Is this all the ramen left?"

"Hai. You might want to start rationing it."

"Rationing it?"

"Its going to be a couple of months before we head down the mountain."

"Nani! A few months?!"

"That's why I said you should ration it!" The two of them sat in stone silence for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"Why can't we go down and get more?"

She laughed softly. "Not for that. I'm sorry about this morning."

The kettle began to whistle. Naruto turned the stove off and stared at it. There were a few more minutes of silence. "Why did you do it?" he muttered.

She shrugged and took another bite of ice cream. "You scared me. All I could think of was you burning yourself to a crisp. I lost my temper."

"I could have controlled it!" He pouted, pouring the hot water into the cup.

"Naruto, the last time I saw that technique performed it was by a jounin from the east. He had more than enough chakra to summon it, but not enough control. He burnt four acres of forest and killed three people."

"Nani! But, but-"

"More powerful techniques often require more control. You've gained a lot through working through the scroll, but not enough. Had you started that jutsu I don't know if I could have gotten Hinata and myself off the mountain in time. You certainly would be dead."

"Oh." He was taken back by this. He could have killed Hinata?

Sora shook her head. "Naruto, why do you want to become strong so badly?"

"So I can become Hokage."

"And why on earth would you want that?"

She sounded like Tsunade. Naruto opened his mouth to give his normal reply about acknowledgement and stopped. Suddenly, it didn't seem like it was quite the truth. So, for the first time in his life, he said something slightly different. "So that I can make sure that nothing happens to those precious to me. So that I'm not on the outside of the village anymore."

Sora sighed. It was hard to argue with reasons like that. "Are you sure? I've lived on the outside my whole life. It's not that bad."

"Heh. I've lived on the outside my entire life and I'm not going back."

"You sure you want to be Hokage? You can still have a lot of that just being a shinobi."

"I'm going to be the best and I don't go back on my word." Naruto grinned. "That's my nindo."

Sora grinned. "And that is one thing I agree with completely." They sat there looking at each other across the aisle. For the first time in weeks they thought this might actually work out. Then Sora's smile dropped. "Of course, if you keep doing stupid things like you pulled this morning you are never going to make it to Hokage.

Naruto's anger was back in an instant. "Well, I wouldn't have done it if you had been teaching me anything."

"I have been teaching you things! What do you think the scroll is?"

"That's not teaching me anything! Who the hell uses jutsu to do the dishes?

"I use jutsu to do the dishes! Just because it's not used in combat doesn't mean that it's useless!"

"It's useless in terms of getting stronger! It's useless in terms of protecting people! It's useless in terms of becoming Hokage!"

Sora rolled her eyes and shook her spoon at him. "It is not useless to becoming Hokage! These are things necessary to becoming a good shinobi. I've spent a lot of time outside the world of the hidden villages. Trust me, there are a lot of strong people out there, but not a lot of them are good ninja's." She growled in frustration. "Goddamn it do you even listen to what I say? Do you understand what I mean when I say a good ninja versus a strong ninja?"

"There is no difference!"

"Yes there is. What does it mean to be Hokage?"

"It means that you're the strongest in the village."

"And?"

"And it means that you protect the village."

"And?"

"And what?"

"And you guide the village. You determine what path it is going to take in the future. You negotiate treaties, settle disputes between clans, and decide what missions to accept. You have to know if all of your shinobi are operating at top form and how to keep it that way. You have to make sure that there are children in the village to carry on your work. Keeping alive the light of a village means more than just going into battle for it. It means making sure that the village will stand even if you fall."

Naruto stopped and thought about it. That was what the third had done, he realized. He had kept the village strong so that, even when he fell, they had been able to live without a Hokage for the few weeks that they were looking for Tsunade.

Sora continued. "Tsunade, Jiraiya and from I can tell, Kakashi, they are all good ninjas. In fact all of the Hokages have been good ninjas, which is probably the only reason why I can stand the place at all. I have the feeling that you want to be a good ninja as well. Now, I could go through and pull out all of the most dangerous techniques I knew and teach them to you. Maybe if I was prepping you for an exam that's what I'd do. But using the scroll and building up your skills gradually is the way that I know how to turn you into a good ninja."

"Your way stinks."

"I know. It's frustrating as hell. Quite frankly, I wasn't a big fan of it either when I had to do it."

"Then why the hell are we doing it?!"

"Because it's how I was trained and I know it works. I had to learn the entire scroll myself when I was a kid." She sighed. "Still I suppose that it was for different reasons than you."

"Huh?"

"When Nanashi gave me the scroll it was a way to give me something that wasn't deadly. It was to prep me for higher techniques as well, but mainly I think she did it because she wanted me to do something other than fight. I was raised to be a fighter and all I had been taught was how to kill." She scrunched up her nose. "That and a lot of boring traditional things like serving tea and fan dancing."

"Really? You where good."

"Eh, sort of. When I started traveling with Nanashi-sensei I was probably close to a chuunin level."

"How old were you?"

"Seven."

"NANI?!"

"Well it was all I had ever learned, even if I wasn't terribly good at it. At least not compared to the others I was training with. I was, as they loved to tell me, dead last."

Naruto looked at her in amazement. She had been dead last like him? She grinned at her. "You weren't very good?"

She glared at him before shrugging and taking another bite of ice cream. "I didn't really have the personality for it. I didn't become good until much later on, even with an advanced bloodline."

He gaped at her. "You have an advanced bloodline?"

She shot him an incredulous look. "You didn't notice? I had to use it today in my fight against you; otherwise I would have never stopped you in time. You have good potential. The things that are holding you back are experience and training, certainly not a lack of ability. Plus you have the personality of a fighter, something I lacked when I started training."

"What do you mean?"

Sora shrugged. "Up until I was thirteen I was more like Hinata than anyone else. Speaking of which..." She looked over in the direction of the door. "Are you going to hover there all night or come in a join us?"

Naruto looked half behind him to see Hinata standing there in a long kimono style robe. "Ano..." she said.

"Come in, join us. Ice cream? Or do you want ramen? Or maybe something else?"

She smiled shyly before using the left over hot water from Naruto's ramen to make herself some tea.

"How much did you hear?" Sora asked, although she didn't seem upset about her eavesdropping.

"Ano, since you were talking about being Hokage."

"Woke you up with the yelling huh?"

Hinata shook her head. "I wasn't sleeping." She sat next to Naruto on the kitchen island.

"Seems like none of us were. At least we can start getting these things sorted out now. Can you two listen for five minutes?"

They nodded.

"OK, look." Sora started. "Let me start by saying I am not a teacher. I have never taught anyone. Furthermore the more I get into this whole teaching thing, the more I feel like a righteous bitch. As I like choosing when I am going to be bitchy, I will make the two of you a deal."

"You have to finish the scroll. The reason is it is a stepping stone towards a whole lot of other things that I could teach you. You also have to keep learning the history. However, I will also start teaching you taijutsu, tactics and combat ninjutsu. In return I would like for you to follow my training methods. They may not be what you like, but I know they work. I don't like having you two think of me as some bitchy teacher. It makes me feel old and cranky."

"Then what should we think of you as?"

"I don't know. You call me Onee-chan, just sort of think of me as an older sibling who knows more than you do."

Naruto smirked. "If we do that you won't be a bitch."

"Considering how much our personalities clash, probably not. Just not so much of one. So, do we have a deal?" She held her hand out at them.

Naruto grinned. "I'll end up strong?"

"I promise you to do everything I can to make you the strongest, best hokage ever."

He grabbed her hand in his. "Deal." He turned to look at the girl next to him. "Hinata?"

She smiled softly and nodded her head. "Deal," she said softly, placing her hand on top of theirs.

Sora smiled. "You know I can't believe that you two don't want ice cream."

"Ha, like anyone would take ice cream over ramen!"

"Who wouldn't take ice cream over ramen?"

"What are you talking about? Hinata, you would take ramen over ice cream, right?"

"Ano..."

"Come on, its RAMEN!"

"Hey you two!" They turned to look at Sora.

Flash!

Sora grinned at them over the camera. "He, he, that's going to be cute. Ok now let me just set the timer here." She started fiddling around with buttons on the back.

"Ano, Onee-chan, I'm in my robe." Hinata protested.

"So am I. Come on, I don't have any pictures of the three of us yet." She placed the camera on top of a jar on the windowsill and then ran over to hop up onto the counter next to Hinata.

"All right everyone. Smile."

**Original Author's Notes**: Thus ends the first basic arc of this story. After this comes the lovey dovey romantic arc. So, be prepared for lots of fluff and sappiness over the next few chapters.

I have a few quick other things to say. One, I am planning on rewriting the Sora-Naruto fight once I have the chance. I wasn't altogether happy with it in the first place, so I'm going to redo it. (Question: If you don't throw a rasengan like you throw a punch, what verb describes the action of someone utilizing the rasengan?)

Two, I have my first final tomorrow so only heaven knows when I will be able to update again.

Three, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS!!! I really, really appreciate them. I take your suggestions very seriously and change small things or add details when I like an idea or someone has though of something I hadn't, like when Drekko mentioned that I hadn't brought in the reports Sora was supposed to be sending. However, I have all the major plot line of this story sorted out already.

Again, thank you all so much for your reviews!

Wren


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"No, no, no! First ox, then ram and then dragon!" Sora yelled.

"You said hare last time!" Naruto yelled.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Look you little brat, I know what I am talking about as opposed to you so- "

"Ha! I know enough to know when you say one thing and then change it!"

Hinata sighed and took another sip of her tea. Over the past few weeks one of the things she had learned was to stay out of Sora and Naruto's arguments. After the episode with Naruto and the fire wall no jutsu, she had started to try and defuse the arguments between them. Gradually, however, she had come to realize that they rather enjoyed yelling at each other. One of them would pick a fight, they would call each other names for a few minutes and then they would move on. As long as it wasn't too serious, she had learned not to get involved.

In fact they hadn't had a really serious fight for a few weeks now. There had been the one about how Sora was not going to go down the mountain just to get Naruto more ramen resulting in a lecture on preservatives and sodium content from Sora. Then there had been one about Sora's early morning serenades along to the stereo which had resulted in Naruto hiding her CD's which, in turn, made Sora put the Silence no Jutsu on him for a week. And, of course, the worst one when Sora explained that she couldn't teach Naruto Shina-To-Be. . . "It wouldn't work for you!"

"Yes it would!"

"No it wouldn't. Shina- To-Be is based on a lot of aerial work and tight movements. While it may work for you know that you're small as soon as you grow up you're going to be too large. You're better off going with an iron fist, hit-em-hard form."

"So then are you going to teach me one of those?"

Sora shook her head. "I don't really know any well enough to teach it. "

"Then who the hell is going to teach me?!"

"Geez, calm down. You really need to get yourself under control."

"Under control! Why you little..."

"Don't even think about it!"

At which point, Hinata had to step in and, tugging on their sleeves, try to get them to sit at opposite ends of the kitchen table long enough to calm down. There had been a great deal of muttering, name calling and a couple of milder jutsus thrown at each other before they were once again able to talk to each other rationally. Hinata sighed. Wasn't Onee-chan supposed to be the adult?

"Look, there are two different styles of the main Shina form: Shina-To-Be and Shina-Tsu-Hiko. The one I am going to teach Hinata is a soft style. The one that you should learn is Shina-Tsu-Hiko. It's a hard, more forceful style. The basics exercises are the same, so I can start teaching you now."

"Then who's going to teach me the more advanced stuff?"

"Nori."

"Huh?"

"Nori, Yasu's husband. He's one of the best Tsu-Hiko fighters I've ever seen and a much better teacher than me. Once you're ready to move on to the style specific stuff, I'll take you down the mountain and have him teach you some. Trust me, once you've grown up big and tall you'll be glad you learned Tsu-Hiko."

"How do you know I will?"

"Damn it Naruto, I just explained to you why you should learn-"

"No, no not that. How do you know I'm going to big and tall? I'm short."

Sora got a very peculiar look in her eye. Then she smiled ruefully and shook her head. "Just trust me kid, you're going to hit six feet."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Hinata sat at the low table and breathed out slowly. She looked through the railings of the porch at the mountains beyond and forced herself to calm. If she was too nervous when she tried to do this she would end up with a crooked painting. Calmly she dipped her brush in the ink and then blotted off the excess water. Taking another breath, she set the tip of the brush lightly against the paper and began to move.

The door slammed open. "Hey, Hinata, whatcha doing?"

She started and drew a crooked black line across her paper. She stared down at it in disappointment before throwing it away.

"How are you, Naruto-kun?" she asked in a soft voice. Talking to him was getting easier and easier. She was still shy and unsure about what to talk about, but getting the actual words past her lips was not so impossible anymore.

"Good, good," he said sitting down across from her at the table, a bowl of noodle stir fry (temporary ramen substitute) in his hand. "Nee-chan just finished teaching me the Grassfire no jutsu."

Hinata smiled. They had been working on that one for a few days now and Naruto had been having a particularly hard time with it. Sora had been starting to worry that they weren't going to have any grass left in the front.

"Whatcha working on?" he asked again.

"Brush painting. Onee-chan mentioned that she was going to have us start learning how to make scrolls, so I thought I would see how much I remember."

"Eh, you paint?"

She nodded and dipped her brush back in the ink.

"When'd you learn?"

"When I was growing up. Hanabi and I both took lessons."

He watched her paint a few cherry blossoms onto the paper. "Really? And that's going to help you make scrolls?"

"Well it's the type of same brush and ink so-"

"Cool, can I try?" Naruto interrupted.

Hinata smiled and passed the brush to Naruto, who tried to write his name on the rice paper. He was disappointed when the bristles started splitting, giving him two uneven lines instead of one smooth stroke. "Ehhhh?" he groaned. He tried once again, but only made a worse one.

"I think you're pressing too hard. That's why you're getting two lines."

"I'll get it," he grumbled. Hinata smiled at him, as he scrunched up his nose and kept trying to copy Hinata's cherry blossoms. Somehow, in all the thinking and daydreaming she'd done about Naruto over the years, she had never imagined him trying to learn how to paint.

Quietly she took out another bush and dipped it in water. She worked started on another branch of cherry blossoms, carefully creating each petal.

Naruto looked up at her over the table. She was cool, far cooler than he had thought when they were back in Hidden Leaf. Of course she hadn't seemed to talk much back then, so how was he supposed to know she was cool?

About two months ago he had realized something: he didn't need to yell to get her to listen. He was so used to having to be loud to get people to pay attention to him that it had come as a shock when she realized she heard what he was saying even when he was muttering under his breath.

He had been working on a new jutsu, an entrapment technique based off of the chakra weaving from the scroll. He had not been having an easy time of it: his chakra strings kept getting tangled up into big knots.

"Dammnit!" he had muttered, looking at the large mess of chakra and paper in front of him. "Stupid things keep getting messed up."

"Ano, Naruto-kun?" He had been surprised to hear her voice. He hadn't been yelling or trying to get her attention. It hadn't occurred to him, that she might notice what was going on with him without trying to make her.

She had stepped shyly forward, head tilted slightly downward. "Ano...Onee- chan said that there was a rhythm to it."

"Huh?"

"A rhythm. If you keep a steady rhythm up of over under, they don't get tangled up as much." She had blushed. "I was having the same problem."

Naruto had brightened. "Really? Show me?"

Hinata had blushed again and nodded. She started tapping her foot at a slow tempo, then brought up the strings of chakra and started weaving them in and out until she had a large square of woven chakra in front of her.

"Cool!" he had breathed, thrilled that he had found the trick.

Hinata blushed and looked at her feet. "Onee-chan says to start slow and speed up the tempo."

Naruto had grinned at her, which only made her blush harder. "Sumimasen, Hinata-chan!"

The funny thing was it wasn't just a one time coincidence. She almost always listened to what he was saying. Which prompted him to talk. And talk. And then the next thing he knew, he was talking to her all the time.

Hinata was more than happy to listen. He seemed to be able to talk for hours without her having to say anything, which was fine with her. She would sit quietly, listening to him talk about ramen, jutsus, complains about Sora, and others.

The more he talked, the more she liked him. She had liked him for years and admired him for as long as she could remember. And the more he talked about becoming Hokage and getting everyone to acknowledge him, the more she like him. He seemed to be everything she wasn't.

"Neh, Hinata-chan."

She looked up at him, her thoughts interrupted. "Hai?"

"These are sakura blossoms, right?"

"Hai."

"All right! I'm going to paint the best sakura branch ever, and send it to Sakura-chan!"

Hinata smiled slightly as she felt a tiny crack form in her heart. The more he talked, the more she liked him. And the more she knew that she could never tell him.

Sora pulled open the door to the porch. "I'm going down into the town tomorrow. Yasu has some scrolls that she wants from the library. Do ya'll want anything, other," she added with a smile. "A couple of cases of ramen?"

Naruto jumped to his feet. "RAMEN!!!! I wanna come!"

Sora shook her head. "Sorry, kid. Not this time."

"Eh?! But it's been six months and we still haven't been down!"

"Well, you'll just have to wait a few more. I told you I'd take you down when you're ready to learn the more advanced stuff."

"But why not now! I'm sick of this stupid mountain!"

"Look, I can't take you down right now and you're just going to have to accept it."

"You said you would explain things!"

Sora sighed. "OK, look. I am going to need at least one visit to convince Nori to train you. He has some...issues with the clan who taught him Shina- Tsu-Hiko. Unfortunately, that means that he has been...hesitant to teach it to anyone else."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I think it brings up unpleasant memories. In any case, I am going to need to convince Yasu-chan and then the two of us are going to have to convince Nori. I can't do that with you two there."

Naruto sat back down on the ground and sulked. "You'll bring back ramen?"

She smiled. "A whole case, I promise."

He snorted. "... Fine, I guess..."

"Thank you. Now, I'll be gone anywhere from three to five days, depending on how long it takes me to convince Nori. Let me give you a few things to work on while I'm gone." .

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

A 'few things' turned out to be a whole slew of very dense treatises to read on theories of espionage, which they were supposed to do in addition to working on techniques from the scroll, practicing taijutsu, and keeping the house clean. It seemed that Sora was operating under the assumption that the more they had to do, the less trouble they would get into.

As dense as the papers were, Naruto had to admit they were pretty interesting. At least this stuff he could figure out how he was going to use. They were all about the comparative advantages of using one jutsu over the other in different spying situations. When trying to infiltrate a large organization. When trying to infiltrate a small organization. When you didn't exactly know how big the organization was. How to sneak up on people indoors, outdoors, through doors and when there were no doors.

It was a prankster's dream.

He was eager to try all of this out and she was easily persuaded, so Naruto and Hinata spent the better part of a day playing spy games in the house, trying to steal kunai out of each other's pouches without being detected.

Despite some issues at the beginning with being loud and alerting Hinata to his presences, Naruto was determined to get it and started hauling out all sorts of different jutsus he had been taught by Sora over the last few months. It didn't take him long to find all sorts of sneaky things he could do to get the kunai. Standing in semi-darkness, she darted her eyes back and forth down the hallway. It was her turn to be the target and even if she was not going to be able to keep him from taking her weapon, she hoped to at least make it harder on him than before.

Quietly she ran through the seals for a shielding technique and placed light shield around her kunai pouch on her leg. She knew that Sora had taught him how to break this particular one, but it would at least slow him down.

She walked to the intersection of two of the hallways and stood in the middle. She had one more technique left that he hadn't seen yet: Vertigo no jutsu. She ran through the dozen hand seals and created a bubble of genjutsu around herself, filling the intersection. The moment he came within six feet of her he would be hit with massive waves of vertigo and would have trouble standing up. It wasn't wide enough or strong enough to really stop him, but it would buy her some time.

"Byakugan!!" she whispered. Then began to look around for him. There, down the hall to her left she could seen his chakra, with its distinctive swirl in the center. She had never been able to figure out why it did that when no one else's did, but she never managed to work up the courage to ask him. Suddenly, she realized that there were two standing just out of her sight down the hall in front of her and another one behind. Shadow Clones.

She braced herself for an attack, adding chakra to her genjutsu and moving into fighting stance. He would know that she was aware of his presence now. Knowing Naruto, he would figure if he couldn't get it secretly, he could still get it through battle. She waited for his attack.

However, direct attack was not his plan. Years spent as a prankster had kicked in and he was having fun remembering all of the tricks he used to use. He wasn't, in fact, with his shadow clones on the ground. He was standing above and behind her, crouching on the exposed beams. He was in the exact angle of the blind spot, effectively hiding his presence. Now all he had to do was keep her concentrated on the shadow clones and he should be able to get a chakra string around one of the kunai and pull it out.

It was a good plan and it probably would have worked, except for the vertigo no jutsu. As Hinata good more and more nervous, she pumped more and more chakra into her genjutsu. As that happened, the sphere of influence expanded until finally it reached Naruto, who had no idea that she had used the technique in the first place.

It hit him like a ton of bricks.

Everything thing started to swirl around him. Suddenly he seemed very, very high off the ground. He stumbled forward a few feet around the main beam until her started to fall off. Startled by his sudden appearance in her vision, she turned up to look at him. At this point, the clones started to rush forward to catch him, but ended up getting hit by the genjutsu as well, sweeping Hinata up along with them, not making it to Naruto in time and, all stumbling over their own feet, landing on Naruto and Hinata in one giant pile. The clones disappeared, leaving Naruto lying on the floor with Hinata half on top of him, her cheek pressed to his chest. Suddenly her eyes went wide as she realized where she was. She was scrambling backwards off of him when a pain shot through her ankle. She let out a small gasp of pain.

"Hinata-chan, you okay?"

"Ano, umm...hai. It's just, my ankle it..." She tried to stand up, only to find that she couldn't. Her ankle had gotten twisted when she had gotten pushed by the clones.

"Let me see." Naruto took off Hinata's shoe while she sat there and blushed. It was starting to swell up. "Man it looks like you sprained it." He snorted in frustration. Man, if Sora was here she would be able to heal it right up. After three years of training with Tsuande, she was a reasonably good healer. But, while Hinata's healing powers were slowly growing, they were not good enough to heal her own ankle. This meant no training until Sora got back.

Hinata knew exactly what was going through Naruto's mind. She hung her head. She was going to be useless to him until Sora came back.

Suddenly she felt herself being half swung, half tossed up into his back. Her arms automatically went around his neck as he started to run down the hall.

"Naruto-kun?" she questioned.

"We can't train with your ankle sprained. But we can still work on the history junk, right?"

"Ha- hai."

"So, we'll just get so far ahead of that Sora will let us do actual real training for a few days when she gets back." He dumped her in a chair in the library, then ran out again. "I'll grab you some ice," he yelled over his shoulder.

Hinata stared after him. When had he gotten so thoughtful? .

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Late that night, Naruto and Hinata sat together at the library, across from each other at one of the long tables. The piles of papers, books and scrolls Sora had left them to read surrounded them, illuminated by the two small lamps. Hinata had one leg propped up on the chair next to her with an ice pack resting against the side of her ankle.

Naruto sat cross legged in his chair. He had found an article buried in one of the books on interrogation techniques used in espionage. "There are two key ways to interrogate a subject," the article read. "One method is to use intimidation. People in fear of their lives will often become a fountain of knowledge. However, as this often attracts attention, it is a poor method for the under cover ninja. The second is to befriend the subject. This is frequently far more productive. Never underestimate the power of the ideal information passed between friends. Pay attention to everything any contact say's to you. Often it is these little pieces of information that help you put together the final pieces of the puzzle."

"The best way to establish a friendship for the purpose of spying is to use the same procedure you would with any other person you want to make your friend. Begin by asking your subject simple open ended questions about their lives the same way you would a friend."

Naruto frowned. He had never made friends easily. Most people turned their back on him as soon as their figured out what he was. He had a few precious people and even fewer friends. This was going to be hard.

Naruto looked up at Hinata. She shifted slightly in her chair and rested her head on her hand.

Well she hadn't realized what he was yet. She was a friend, right? At least, she was as close to one as he had. They could train this while her foot was hurt!

"Neh, Hinata?"

She looked up from where she had been reading The History of the Use and Abuse of Soldier's Pills: A comparative approach. "Hai?"

Now he had to think about what he wanted to question her about. "Ano, so..." His voice trailed off. It suddenly occurred to him how little he actually knew about her. He'd picked up on certain things over the last six months. She liked green tea, got nervous when people watched her and was always ready to help him out. She liked to get up early in the mornings and sit out on the front porch. She practiced hard, trying to learn everything Nee- chan could teach her and she always remembered to ask the questions he forgot to. But it occurred to him that in terms of actual facts, he knew very little. It made it difficult to find a starting point.

"Ano, so...how old were you when you started training?" Good opening question, he decided.

"I started as soon as I could walk," she said quietly. Her tone was that of someone reciting bare fact, not that of someone describing her past.

"Really? You've had someone train you all your life? That's so COOL!"

Hinata blushed, but there was sadness in her eyes. She didn't consider it cool.

Naruto looked down at the book. "Ask your subject question about how they think and feel on particular subjects. It brings them closer to you and will make them open up." Cool, he could do that. "Did you like it?"

Hinata looked up, startled. He hadn't really asked her to talk about her personal life before. They had talked about mutual friends, life in Konoha and how hard the Chunnin exam had been, but never about anything really personal before. And her childhood training sessions with here father were personal. Very personal.

Naruto waited for Hinata to say something, but and answer didn't seem to be forthcoming. "Hinata?" he asked.

She shook her thought from her head. "Gomen, Naruto-kun." She looked up at him. "No, I- I didn't like it."

Naruto was shocked. Not like training? How could anyone not like training? "What? Why not?"

"I- I wasn't..." Her voice trailed off. He was staring at her, clearly waiting for her answer. She took a deep breath. "I wasn't very good at it."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"I was- am a... disappointment."

Now Naruto was really confused. What did she mean a disappointment? "Disappointment to who?"

"To my clan. To my family. To my father." She shook her head. "I'm, I'm just...not very good."

"I don't get it. Not good?"

"I am...not the heir my clan needs me to be. I am not smart. I am not strong."

Now Naruto was really, REALLY confused. "Yes you are."

Hinata looked up, eyes wide and glazed with tears. "What?"

"You're smart and you're strong. You remember all of this history junk and you're good at all the taijutsu that Nee-chan has been teaching us." He grinned. "Besides, you're my training partner right?"

Hinata blushed slightly. "Hai."

"And we train really hard, right?"

"Hai."

"So when we get back to the village, we're going to be super strong, right?"

"Ha-hai."

"All right! I'll prove to everyone that I'm the best Hokage and you'll prove that you're the best head of the Hyuuga house ever, right?" Hinata was working hard to keep the tears in her eyes and not spilling over her cheeks. "Hai," she said her voice a little firmer than normal.

Naruto grinned. He liked interrogating Hinata. It hadn't been as hard as the book indicated: he hadn't even read the whole page! Once you got the hang of it, it was really a lot of fun. Maybe this was what it was like to really have a close friend. He liked finding things out about her. He would have to ask her more questions.

"Neh, Hinata?"

"Hai, Naruto kun?" She braced herself for another personal question.

"What's your favorite color?"

That was not the type she had been expecting. "Color?"

Before Naruto could reply, they heard the sound of the door being pulled open. The light from their reading lamps did not reach all the way to the doorway, preventing the figure from being scene, save the silhouette provided by the hall light. It was a man. He was tall and his broad shoulders were hung with a long dark cape.

Whoever it was, it defiantly wasn't Sora.

**Original Author's Note**: School is finally over and so this chapter is out. Thanks go once again to my beta David as well as all of the wonderful people who reviewed. Thank you so much! There were a few things I was asked about with chapter eight:

Length- I'm thinking that it will end up at about 25 chapters. Maybe. There is this lovey dovey arc and then one more.

Sappiness- I don't think it's going to get much worse than this chapter.

Sora's bitchiness- I don't think of her so much as a bitch as rude, stubborn and argumentative. Plus, isn't his ability to change people a defining characteristic of Naruto?

Hinata's fashion- Some people seemed to be worried that Sora's insult to Hinata's hair was going to mean that I was going to transform Hinata into some sort of mini Sora complete with fishnets and braids. I shudder at the mere thought. There will be small changes in her and Naruto's looks, but not anything drastic. It will be limited to ageing the two of them and you can ignore it if you wish.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Itachi had been searching for five months and he still hadn't been able to come up with so much as a hint as to where they were. It was baffling, a phenomenon he was not used to. Apparently this woman was excellent at keeping herself hidden. If they really were with Sora, it would seem as if they would be easy to find: a woman of her looks and reputation would attract attention.

He would probably not believed his colleague who had made the connection between the woman who had taken the two Leaf Nin and the legend from the east had it not been for the three farm workers. They had described her perfectly and she had been traveling with two children who looked like the two children. '

No it had to be her. There was key information he was missing. He just had to find it.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto stood up ready to challenge the figure in the doorway. The man crossed his arms and leaned up against the doorjamb.

"So," he said. "You are Naruto and Hinata, I presume."

Before either of them could reply, a small voice and the soft rapid pattering of feet was heard coming down the hall. "Daddy?" it called out. "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

The man smiled and reached down to scoop up a small girl in his arms. She had long dark hair shot with white, as if she was starting to go gray. She looked at Naruto and Hinata with wide pale blue eyes.

"Miki-chan, this is Naruto and Hinata. They are your Aunt Sora's students."

"Aun' Sowa?"

"That's right." He looked back up the two genin who were staring at him. "Naruto, Hinata this is my daughter Miki. And I am Nori."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "You're the Shina expert who is going to teach me all the advanced stuff?"

Some of the sparkle went out of Nori's eyes. "I might. I haven't decided yet."

"Neh, neh! What are you going to teach me?"

"You mean they're actually in the library?" Sora appeared in the doorway, peaking around Nori's shoulders. "I can't believe you two are studying. Actually," she turned to Naruto. "What I can't believe is that you are studying."

"Ha! I'll show you." He waved a hand at the pile in front of him. "This stuff is easy. I'll know it all by the end of the week!"

"Great! I have tons more stuff to give you to read then!" Sora smiled sweetly as Naruto's stomach dropped.

"Ano...Onee-chan?"

"Hai, Hinata-chan?"

"You're...you're wearing pants!"

Naruto looked around the edge of the table. Sure enough, Sora's miniskirt and fishnets were gone, although she probably still had the boots on. From hip to heel, her legs were covered in matte black leather. They weren't even really tight: if it wasn't for the material they would have looked like normal pants. They were, without a doubt, the most conservative article of clothing either of them had ever seen her in, save the large fluffy bathrobe.

"Yeah, so?" Sora shifted from foot to foot. "They're nice and soft. Very comfortable." Comfortable was not what Sora looked like. Nori was trying to stifle a laugh behind one hand.

Hinata smiled. "They look nice, Onee-chan."

"Thank you, Hinata-chan." Suddenly her eyes narrowed. "Hinata-chan, why are you icing your ankle?"

Hinata and Naruto looked guilty at each other. "Ano, well, we um think I sprained it."

With one clean swipe, Sora snatched the ice off of Hinata's foot. "You THINK you sprained it? It's the size of a grapefruit!"

"Eh, ha ha, guess she, um, did then, didn't she?" Naruto said awkwardly, hand rubbing the back of his head.

Steam was starting to come out of Sora's ears. "Naruto, why do I get the feeling that you are the one responsible for this? Damn it, can't I leave you two alone for 48 hours without something happening?"

"It was an accident!"

Sora rolled her eyes. "I really can't trust the two of you alone." Walking over to Hinata, she activated a healing technique and then gently laid her hands on the ankle. Hinata breathed in sharply as Sora's hands began to glow blue. Her ankle went cold and then warm and the swelling began to go down.

Standing up, Sora brushed her hands together. "I sped up the healing, so it should be fine by tomorrow. But you are going to have to stay completely off of it until then." She looked over at Naruto. "That means you're going to have to carry her. Fitting, seeing as you did it."

Naruto jumped up from his seat. "What makes you think I did it? Why do I always get blamed for these things? It wasn't my fault!"

Sora dismissed his comments with a wave of her hand. "Whatever. Just come down to the kitchen."

Naruto moved around the table to offer his back to Hinata. Her cheeks went red, but she gingerly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself up against his back. His arms slid under her legs as he adjusted her weight.

Hinata and Naruto followed the two adult and the little girl out of the library and back down the hall. Naruto turned his head to whisper into Hinata's ear. "Even with the pants, she still looks like one of those women Jiraiya..."

And Naruto suddenly found himself stuck with the Silence no Jutsu.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Yasu was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman Naruto and Hinata had ever seen. She looked more like a fine porcelain doll than a living human. Her thick white hair was pulled up into a knot at the crown of her head and held in place by a few simple hairpins. Her skin was pale and perfectly smooth, without a smile line or wrinkle. She would have almost looked like an albino if it wasn't for her large pale green eyes. The sleeves of her kimono were tied back and she was in the process of slicing vegetables.

"Okaa-san!" Miki yelled, streetching her arms out to the woman. She smiled and plucked the child out of her husband's arms.

"So, you two must be the new apprentices." Naruto and Hinata nodded. "And you survived living with Sora for six months?" They nodded again. Yasu shook her head. "I'm amazed. Still, neither of your clothes really fit." She looked up at Sora. "They're teenagers. They're not going to fit into the same clothes for six months."

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" Sora said, rooting through the various bags on the counter until she found her chocolates. Tearing the plastic off the box, she eagerly removed the lid and started eating.

"You are supposed to take them down the mountain and get them new clothes. Honestly, you can be so irresponsible."

"That's why I'm friends with you. You're responsible enough for both of us." Yasu shot her a glare. "All right, all right. I think there's some old clothes in one of the storage rooms upstairs. I'll go looking for them." She spun and left the kitchen.

Yasu sighed. "Still the same Sora," she muttered. She shook her head and looked at the pair. Naruto had set Hinata down on a free span of countertop and was still standing next to her. He seemed oblivious to the blush on the girl's cheeks. Yasu smiled. Sora was right: the girl was in love with him and he was clueless.

"So has she made you do that scroll yet?"

"You know about that?" Hinata sounded surprised.

"Of course. She never went anywhere without it, which I always thought was rather strange considering how dead set she was against training anyone. You two must be pretty special to change her mind."

"Of course we are! Hinata's the heir to the Hyuuga Clan and I'm going to be Hokage!"

Yasu's eyes widened. A clan heir and a kid who wants to be Hokage? Something had to be going on here: Sora would never train these two willingly. Further questioning of Sora was definitely called for.

"So, how far have you gotten on the scroll?"

"We've almost finished. We just have about five more to go."

Yasu chuckled. "And you've only been up here six months. Sora took over a year to learn all those skills."

Naruto's eyes widened in delight. "Really?"

"From what she tells me. But Sora would never tell you. She's entirely too petty."

"Too petty?"

"She is the queen of small irritating vices. The thing with Sora is that she has never grown up. She is the exact same stubborn, impulsive, and immature teenage brat I started traveling with eight years ago. She does nothing in particular, wanders around from place to place being moody and has the most appalling fashion sense I have ever seen."

"Then why did you travel with her?" Hinata asked.

"Despite all of that, she is one hell of a good fighter. One of the best in the eastern lands. Plus, she's as good a partner as they come: in the five years we traveled together she never let me down when it counted."

"What about when it didn't count?"

Yasu narrowed her eyes. "She was apt at playing practical jokes."

"Practical jokes?"

"She liked to get people with genjutsu when they weren't paying attention. Guy insults her and he was liable to end up with his voice raised an octave for a few hours. When she was really irritated she would use Henge no Jutsu and Voice Change no Jutsu on the guy to make the offender look and talk like a dog."

It was one of the best idea's Naruto had ever heard. He had to get Nee- chan to teach that to him. He could turn Sasuke into rabbit or something. Better yet, he could turn Nee-chan into a toad.

Hinata seemed vaguely distressed by the whole thing. "She would really do that?"

"Sometimes to entire groups of men. It was one of her favorite pastimes while we were on the road."

"And no one realized it was her?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Only rarely. Of course with her bloodline it was easy to-"

"Don't tell them please; I'm making them guess." Sora stood in the doorway, leaning up against the doorjamb with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Aww, come on!" Naruto grumbled.

"I used it front of you already, you should be able to figure it out." She looked back at Yasu. "Are you in here going through that whole never-grew- up thing again?"

"When you dress like that, you can hardly blame me. Getting you into those pants is the biggest fashion victory I've had since I got you out of that goddamn dress."

Sora rolled her eyes. "Do you always have to bring up the dress?"

"You were the one who wore the dress."

Naruto thought this was great. Not only was he learning new things to bug Nee-chan to teach him, but he was also learning about things she was embarrassed about. Yasu would have to come over more often. "Neh, neh! What dress?"

Sora and Yasu looked at each other. "Yasu-chan..." Sora warned.

"Sweetheart," Yasu called out with a smile. Suddenly Nori was behind Sora, holding her arms behind her back.

"What the hell-"

"I can do better than tell you about it, Naruto-kun. I can show it to you." She reached for her bag and pulled out a small photo album.

"NO!" Sora yelled, struggling against Nori, trying to get her feet in the right position to throw him. "Why they hell did you bring those?"

"You suddenly have students after all your swearing that you would never take any on and you expect me not to try and embarrass you? Honestly, I thought you knew me better than that." She smiled and handed the little book over to Naruto. "Here you go. Sora age 17."

She was wearing boots very similar to the ones she wore now, but instead of a skirt she seemed to only be wearing a pair of underwear. The 'dress' was nothing more than three panels of black leather laced together with red ribbon which left wide stripes of skin exposed up her front and down either side. Her hair was half red half black and done in huge sausage curls. She was sitting on a barstool, toasting the camera with some sort of pink drink.

Naruto took one look at the picture and burst out laughing. Oh this was good, this was really, really good. He would be able to hound her about this to no end. Howling, he passed the photo to Hinata. She contented herself with more restrained giggles.

"Ha ha ha, go ahead and laugh." Sora glared at them. "I'm so going to get you for this Yasu."

"See what I mean? She's just like a child. Now if you want to see something really funny, I have some in here of her ex-"

"Hey Yasu, remember that time we were at staying at that inn just after I introduced you to Nori?"

Yasu went deadly silent and scowled at Sora. Her scowl deepened as Sora started to smile at her. She closed the photo album with a snap. "Who would like a cup of tea?"

Nori released Sora's arms. She smiled at Yasu. "That sounds lovely. But we should all probably be getting to bed soon. It's awfully late," she said in a falsely sweet voice, taking the tray from Yasu. The two of them went into the living room.

Hinata looked at Naruto and then at Nori. "What just happened?"

Nori shook his head. "They've been friends for so long that they know almost all of each other's secrets. Sora just wanted to 'share' a story about Yasu if she didn't put away the pictures."

"Oh." Hinata thought about that for a second. "Sora said she introduced you to Yasu."

"Hai. Just after Nanashi died, Sora came to stay with my clan. My mother, who was at that time the head of the clan, had been good friends with Nanashi and took Sora under her wing. When there was a revolution in the clan and the branch family took over, I left and took Sora with me."

"The branch family revolted? But it is duty of the branch family to protect the head family!"

"My mother was a good woman and an excellent leader, but her cousin still resented the fact that she had the power and control. In the end she killed everyone in the head family that she could, claiming that we had been changing the clan to fast and that a return to the old ways was necessary."

"But that's awful!"

"That's clan life a lot of the time: strong against outside forces, but constantly battling itself. In any case, I needed to make a living and the only thing I was trained for was to be a mercenary. No matter how good she was, I didn't want to haul a thirteen year old around with me, so I left her with Tsunade. We kept in contact, but we didn't really see each other for six years. Then I met Yasu, we eventually settled down and Sora started wandering alone. Until she picked up you guys, that is," he added with a quick smile.

"Why didn't she get a new partner?"

"She's always been wary of bringing people into her life. Nanashi died, and Sora was a wreck. She showed up at our door a disheveled mess one day and was like a ghost for weeks. Then one day she just snapped out of it, as if she had been a haunted and the ghost had left." He shrugged. "She became the Sora we know now. I can count the people she considers friends on one hand."

Naruto pondered this for a second. "Neh, Nori-san?"

"Hai?"

"How did Nanashi-sensei die?"

"I don't know. There are two things that Sora has never told anyone about, not even us. One is how she came to be in Nanashi's care. The other is how Nanashi died."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Early the next morning, Sora, Yasu and Nori sat out on the front steps watching the sun rise. They all knew what they had to talk about, and they were all waiting for one of the other's to break the silence.

Finally Sora spoke. "So, are you going to help me train them?"

Yasu looked over at her. "I still want an explanation as to why they're with you in the first place."

"I told you, Obaa-chan asked me to."

"That's not enough reason for you. Who are those two, Sora-chan?"

"They're just Leaf nin that Tsunade asked me to look after and train."

"They are not just Leaf nin. You have the single loudest ninja I have ever met in my life and the most timid one."

"You should have seen them when they got here," Sora mumbled.

Yasu continued as if Sora hadn't interrupted. "Not only that, but from what I've seen and what you've told me, he has no family, very little natural ability and his impulsivity is off the charts while she is under her families thumb, is blessed with an extremely powerful bloodline but she is to hesitant to use."

"They're prefect opposites," Nori said quietly staring into the sunrise. He turned to Sora. "You said they work well together?"

"They seem to."

"And Naruto is good at ninjutsu where Hinata is good at genjutsu."

"Hai, but they're both decent at taijutsu and getting better. If you just help me train Naruto in the advanced stuff, I can do the rest."

Nori looked at Sora and then back out at the dawn.

Yasu narrowed her eyes. "Sweetheart I don't like that look..."

"You need to partner train them."

"Nani?"

"Partner train them. Like what my family does. You're teaching them complimentary styles you ought to at least train them to work together."

"But we left before I could learn any of the partner stuff."

"I'll teach them the taijutsu stuff and you and Yasu worked well enough together for you to teach the other things. The partner trials were legendary in the house: even if you didn't participate in them, you know basically what they were. It would be silly for you not to partner train them."

"But Hinata has a crush, if not in love, on Naruto. He's the densest person I've ever met, but if I put them together in partner training it's bound to come out. That could wreck the partnership."

"Or he could realize that he is in love with her too."

Sora groaned. "Riiight... Just what I need. A pair of hormonal teenagers in love."

Yasu and Nori chuckled. "You brought it on yourself," Yasu said.

Sora lay her face in her hands. "Fine, fine, fine. If you will teach them the taijutsu part, I will do the rest of the partner training."

Nori smiled. "Good. You're always a reasonable person when forced to be."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto stumbled into the kitchen. It was later than he normally got up, but Sora's unusual morning serenade had been curiously absent. "What happened to the music?"

Yasu look up from where she was chopping vegetables. "I don't let her play it when I'm here." She went back to chopping. "We have something to discuss with you and Hinata. You should probably go wake her up."

"Ano, you mean like...umm... go in her room?" Naruto had never been in a girl's room before.

"Generally waking someone up would imply going into their room. Unless, of course you want to yell at her through the door."

Relief washed over Naruto. He could just yell at her to get up from the hall: no one was louder than him.

Racing up the stairs he slid to a stop at Hinata's door. He knocked the door with the side of his fist. "Hey Hinata-chan! It's time to get up!"

No reply.

So he knocked harder. "Hinata-chan! Hinata-chan!"

Still not a sound.

He took a deep breath and started to yell "HINATA-CHAN!"

"Naruto what on earth are you doing?" Sora stood just outside the doorway to her room, hands on her hips glaring at him.

"Yasu said to get Hinata up."

"Then go in there and wake her up. She obviously can't hear you."

Naruto looked between Sora and the door in confusion. But Hinata had always heard him, why not now??.

Tentatively he pulled the door open. He could see her curled up in her futon, sleeping peacefully. He quietly walked over to kneel down beside her, leaning down so he could look at her face. Her cheeks were faintly flushed and a few strands of hair stuck to the sides of her face. The front was the same as ever: blunt bangs and two pieces framing her face. However Sora had declared that she was unable to cut Hinata's hair into what Sora referred to as 'the duck butt' and as Hinata couldn't cut it herself, that had been left to grow. Now it stopped about an inch above her shoulder and was currently fanned out over the pillow.

Naruto smiled and had a curious urge to let her sleep. She looked so peaceful, so calm, tucked up in her blankets without a worry in the world.

Then Naruto had an even more curious urge to crawl in with her and go back to sleep himself. When he realized what he had just considered, he shot upright and scooted a few inches away from the bed. Where the hell had that thought come from!?.

Carefully, he reached out his hand to place it on her shoulder. The soft cotton of her sleeping kimono felt warm under his palm. He started to gently shake her. "Hinata-chan?"

Hinata's face twitch slightly and she scrunched up her nose. Slowly her eyes began to open, still glazed over from sleep. There was something orange next to her bed.

"Ano, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata eyes shot open as she sat straight up in bed. Surprised, Naruto fell backwards onto his rear end and stared at her. Hinata stared back, eyes wide and bed sheet clutched to her chest.

"Naruto-kun?" she asked in a confused and slightly panicky voice.

"Hinata-chan! I, well ummm...You see you weren't up and ummm... Yasu thought that I wake you... and I yelled but you didn't hear and then Sora came and I was supposed to go in and then I...I..." He turned beet red and quickly stammered the last piece of the message. "SoraandYasuwanttotalktousI'llseeyouinthekitchen." And he bolted out of the room.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Yasu looked at Sora. "What did you do?"

"I put a sound barrier around Hinata's room so he would have to go in and wake her up."

"The point being?"

"To embarrass the hell out of both of them."

Yasu sighed and shook her head. "As I said before, you've never grown up." .

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Yasu and Sora sat across the table from Naruto and Hinata, staring at them. The two teens shifted uncomfortably in their chairs.

"Ano...where is Nori-san?"

"My husband is the mayor of the town. He had to go back."

"Then he's not going to teach me?" Naruto was crushed.

Sora shook her head. "He is going to teach you. However, he wanted us to propose something to the two of you."

"What?"

"As you may know, the west and the east work on two completely different political systems. The hidden villages work on almost a feudal system. Each clan owes allegiance to the Kage who provides leadership and protection to them. In the west, things are far more confused. Some people side with a clan, others a religious group, still others with the people they live with. The west is also far more urbanized than the east."

"Yeah, yeah, we know all that. What's the point?"

"The point, Naruto, is that many of the clans can be more powerful than the Kages. Some have bloodlines and others are simply political powerhouses. Nori and I were both trained by the Kaze Clan from where the Shina forms were born. We share a mutual hatred for the clan, but that doesn't mean that the methods they used were any less effective."

"The fact is," Yasu said. "That the Kaze Clan gains a great deal of it's power from the fact that it's fighters work so well together. While they excel in medium to large groups, their real power comes from the partner training."

"Partner training?" Naruto asked.

"Once basic training is done, all trainees are paired up. They form partnership that will last for years, sometimes over someone's entire fighting career."

"Sort of like your genin trainee groups, but more permanent," Sora added.

"And usually more powerful. A well trained pairing can be twice or three times more powerful than the individual powers of the fighters combined."

"What's this got to do with us?" Naruto asked again.

Yasu and Sora exchanged glances. "My husband thinks that the two of you should be partner trained. While it doesn't mean that the two of you won't be able to work alone or with other people, but it does mean a commitment to each other."

"Commitment?" Weren't guys supposed to run at the word commitment?

"Basically, it mean's that you're going to be friends, close friends, for the rest of your lives. There are no secrets in between partners: they have to know you so well they can predict what you are going to do in any given situation. You have to be able to see their flaws and still basically like the person." Yasu smiled. "It's sort of like being married."

Naruto and Hinata paled.

"Without the sex, of course," Sora added. Well, actually it was only generally without the sex. Many partners became in fact husband and wife as well.

"But the choice has to be yours. Either you commit to partner training and we start or we keeping going the way we have. You're choice."

Hinata shifted in her chair. "You mean we have to commit to being partner for the rest of our lives."

"Not necessarily. Yasu-chan got married and now we're not really partners any more. But if you're partner trained, when you go back to Hidden Leaf it would be silly for Obaa-chan to have you on separate teams. It would last beyond your three years here."

Naruto and Hinata looked at each other. Not be on their teams anymore? The breaking up of their teams had seemed so far in the future...

Yasu smiled. "I know it's overwhelming. Children from the Kaze Clan have their whole lives to come to terms with the idea, and even for them when the time comes to pick a partner, they're unsure. Fortunately, we have an exercise to help you decide."

Hinata and Naruto looked up, still in a daze. What kind of exercise could help them for such a delicate decision?

Sora smiled and stood up. "This way."

They walked up the third story of the house. There, Sora opened the door to a large room and gestured the pair inside. "OK, so there are futons in the closet over there and a bathroom through that door. We'll come back and bring you food later. You have 24 hours to talk it out. Have fun!"

"Nani!?" Naruto yelled and she slammed the door shut. Running over he pulled on the door but it didn't budge. They were locked in.

**Original Author's Notes**: These are the last origonal characters in this story with the exception of some minor bad guys for Naruto and Hinata to practice on. Yasu and her family are going to play a relatively small role in the story so, don't worry OC's are not taking over. Thank you so much for your reviews. Bottom of Form


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"NANI!" Naruto yelled before rushing over to bang on the door. He could hear Sora laughing outside the door.

"I suggest just working on getting a conversation going and then talking about committing yourself to a partnership," she giggled.

"What the hell! You said this was an exercise to help us decide whether or not we would make good partners!"

"This is it. It's my special 'locking-the-two-of-you-in-a-room-together- and-forcing-you-to-talk-it-out' method. Have fun!" There were a few more giggles and then he could hear Yasu and Sora walking away.

"Why you little...!!!" Naruto's scream could be heard all over the house.

"Would you like to play some poker?" Sora asked Yasu.

"Like I would be stupid enough to play poker with you."

The sound of their voices faded away. Slowly, Naruto turned to look back at Hinata. She was standing in the center of the room looking shocked.

His face scrunched up and he started trying to force the door open again. "Damn it!" he yelled. "They must have put some sort of seal on it." He turned around and looked at Hinata. "Can you...?"

She shook her head. "I don't remember any room seals. At least, none that seal us in and let sound through."

"You mean we're stuck in here?" Naruto said in disbelief.

Hinata bit her lip and looked down at the floor, as if she was responsible for their predicament. She wanted to be able to do anything he asked of her, but she just didn't know what was going on.

Suddenly Naruto was there next to her. "Neh, neh. Don't worry, Hinata- chan, we'll get out." He patted her awkwardly on the back while she stared at him in shock. Then he walked over to inspect the door again.

She watched him from across the room. "Is it really that bad?" Her voice was so quite he could barely hear her.

"Huh?" he said, twisting around to look at her over his shoulder.

She was standing in a sunny patch of light from the window, her head still tilted down and her bangs obscuring her eyes. "Is it that bad...to spend a day locked in here...with me?"

A puzzled look came over Naruto's face. "She locked us in here! Right when I thought we were going to learn something cool!"

"But," she tilted her face up just enough to look at him. "But being locked in with...with me. That doesn't make you mad?"

"No, why should it? Come on and help me look for a week spot in this seal." Fire might do the trick. First he would try burning the wall of the room and see if that broke the seal.

But just as he was about to start, Hinata's voice stopped him.

"Naruto-kun?" He turned to look at her again. "If- if being in here doesn't bother you. Could we...could we try to do what Sora asked?"

"Huh?"

"Could we...stay in here and, and try to talk out the partnership?"

Naruto stopped. This hadn't really occurred to him. He was so mad at Sora that it hadn't entered his mind to go along with what she had suggested.

"I mean," Hinata continued. "We have to come up with an answer anyway, so I just thought that maybe...that we could try..." Her voice trailed off.

Naruto stared at her. She looked back down at her feet.

She shouldn't have said anything. She should have simply gone along with him and helped break out of the room. But she liked the idea of talking it through and she was worried that Naruto would just accept the idea of partner training automatically because it was going to make him stronger. She was already locked into a family for life; she wasn't sure if she wanted to be locked in partnership with Naruto. She wasn't sure if her heart would be able to take it.

Naruto didn't understand any of this. He was locked in a room with Hinata and she wanted to stay there and talk about this partnership thing. Well, if that's how she wanted to do it...

"All right," he said, walking across the room to the closet. Hinata looked up at him in surprise as he opened the door to the closet. "Did they at least leave us some cushions to sit on? And ramen, I could really go for some ramen. Hey look!" He grinned and pulled out an electric kettle. "We have hot water and tea and RAMEN! We're all set!"

Hinata blinked at him a few times and then numbly took the kettle from his hands and went to fill it in the bathroom. Returning, she saw that Naruto had put out cushions against the wall and was trying to pick out what type of ramen he wanted. He was still reeling from finally having some again after weeks of being out. "Hinata?" he asked, startling her.

"Hai?"

"Which do you think: chicken or miso?" he asked, holding the two cups out in front of him.

"Ano...I like miso," she said quietly.

"Cool. I'll have the chicken then and if you get hungry later you can have the miso."

Naruto was sharing his ramen? She was starting to wonder if the joke was all on her and this was some sort of fake Naruto.

"So," Naruto said, plopping down on one of the cushions and waited for the hot water to boil. "What do you want to talk about?"

Carefully, Hinata lowered herself onto a cushion next to him. "We're supposed to talk about the partnership."

Naruto suddenly remembered everything that Sora and Yasu had been telling them. "I think it's a great idea! It's going to make us stronger, right? So we get partner trained and then we go back and wow everybody."

"But Naruto-kun, it means that we would be stuck together forever."

"So? How is that different from what's going to happen anyway?" Suddenly his face darkened. "Hinata-chan, did you think that...when we went back to Leaf...were you going to stop..."

"NO!" she said, with far more conviction in her voice than Naruto had ever heard before. It sent warm feeling throughout his heart to know that she was that sure... Although he didn't know why...

"No, Naruto-kun, it's not that, please don't think..." She stopped and took a deep breath. "No, I always want to be your friend," she said quietly. She wanted to more than his friend, but she couldn't tell him that.

"Then let's do the partner training," he said.

"But, Naruto...my clan..."

"What about your clan?"

She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She kept her eyes squeezed shut. "My clan is very...traditional. They would not, would not take this well." She looked up at him, eyes glassy. "I don't want you to be, to be...I don't want you to have to deal with their anger!" she said desperately.

He looked at her with disbelief. "They wouldn't want you to become stronger? But you're the heir! Don't they want you to?"

"Yes, but...there are specific ways you are supposed to be strong. This isn't the way I'm supposed to do it!"

He shook his head. "I don't get the Hyuuga Clan," he said, pouring the hot water into his ramen and her teapot. Suddenly his eyes went wide and he slammed the kettle down on the floor with a wide grin on his face.

"Neh, neh, I know! You can explain the Hyuuga to me!" He beamed at her as if it was the best idea anyone had ever thought of.

"Pardon...?" Hinata whispered in shock.

"Yeah, yeah, see I already told Neji that I would change the Hyuuga when I became Hokage because of that seal thing. And Nee-chan keeps complaining that I charge into situations without fully getting them. But, you get them, so if you'll explain them to me, we'll change them."

"Change them?"

"The Hyuuga" he said happily. "Once I'm Hokage and you're the head of the clan, we can make them change." He opened the top of his ramen and blew on it before diving in. "So, what's it like being a Hyuuga?"

She poured tea into her cup and brought her knees up to her chest. "Well, we all live in a big house together."

"Even Neji?" he asked, his mouth full.

She smiled at the sight of him looking at her with noodles hanging out of his mouth. "Even Neji. One clan, one roof, as my father likes to say."

"And your mother?"

A pained look crept into Hinata's eyes. "She died shortly after Hanabi was born. She caught a fever."

Naruto looked down at his ramen, unsure of what to say. "I'm sorry."

Hinata smiled thinly. "Don't be. These things happen. I have a few memories of her. She used to call me Hina-chan." She looked over at him. "What about your parents? I've never heard anything about them either."

"That's... because no one knows who they were."

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused and suddenly worried.

Naruto shrugged and launched into the story he had been told as a child. "I was found after the Kyubi had nearly destroyed the village. They don't know where I came from, so they just put me in the orphanage and hoped that someone would come for me. No one ever did."

Hinata looked horrified. "That's terrible!"

Again, he shrugged. It was worse than she realized. All anyone really knew was that the Fourth had walked out of the battle carrying Naruto in his arms. The plan of sealing the Kyubi inside a child had been explained to a select few, but no one knew where the baby in question had come from had come from. All that Yondaime had said was that it would be an orphan.

At least that's what Jiraya told him. As the Fourth's sensei he probably knew everything. So, no one really knew anything. He was just a boy with a Kyubi sealed inside him and no past. But he was determined to have a future.

He glanced over to see Hinata still staring at him. "Like you said, these things happen. Besides, now I've got all sorts of people who matter. Ikura-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, Sasuke, Ero-Sennin, Obaa-chan, Nee-chan and you. I'm fine." He grinned.

But what had he done before? She had been watching him for years and she knew that up until a year and a half ago, he had been a loner. She had always presumed that it had been by choice; she would have given anything to have less family. But now, after having experienced a different sort of family feeling with Sora and Naruto... now she wasn't so sure.

"What was it like before?" she asked softly.

"Before what?" we asked, trying to dodge the question.

"Before all of us."

"Ah, well you know. It was dark." He scratched his head, then shook it. "But it doesn't matter now. That's all over." He continued to stare at his feet.

She should have offered her friendship sooner. She shouldn't have waited for fate to force them together. All of those years when she had stood passively by, watching him from afar, it never occurred to her that he might be hurting because she didn't.

She reached out her arm, hesitated, then forced herself to complete the gesture and lay her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her and she could see the pain in his eyes, as much as he tried to hide it. She swallowed. "You're right. That's all over."

He stared at her for a second and then broke out into a smile. He reached up to grab her hand on his shoulder. "Arigato, Hinata-chan."

She smiled shyly, then pulled her hand out from under his and settled herself back in on her cushion. There was a long and awkward pause, both of them unsure what they should say.

"Ano, you were going to tell me about the Hyuuga, right?"

"Umm, yeah so when I was little because I was the heir, I learned fighting from my father and traditional arts from my mother."

They kept talking, working through their childhoods and years at the academy. Naruto knew almost nothing about her history, but he was surprised by the number of his pranks that she could remember. Soon the stack of empty ramen cups at Naruto's feet had grown almost a foot tall and Hinata had two of her own sitting next to her. The light coming in through the high window began to redden and then faded, but they didn't notice. They had never gotten to tell any of this before and the time seemed to slide past.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"I think this is paradise," Yasu said leaning up against the side of the bath.

"Not a bad view, huh?" Sora smiled and took a sip of her sake.

They were lounging in the bath watching the sky turn colors. The sun was actually setting behind them on the other side of the mountain, but the sky was still lovely. From their position at the very top of the house they could see the valleys and rivers sparkle in the setting sun.

Sora sighed and sunk deeper into the water. "Nanashi was a genius for putting a bath up here."

"I agree." She smiled. "So, am I going to have to beat it out of you?"

"Beat it out of me?"

"Why you took those two on. And don't give me some crap about how Tsunade asked you to. We both know that's not the reason."

"Well, Hinata reminded me a bit of myself, so I decided to rescue her from her father and take her away to get properly trained."

"That's a lie and was both know it! Goddamn it, Sora why won't you tell me?"

Sora just smiled slightly. "You never would have yelled like that five years ago. Back in the days of the Ice Queen."

Yasu sighed. "That was before I fell in love."

"Does it really make that much of a difference?"

"Nori gave me an option I never even knew I wanted. I like being a wife and mother."

"I just can't believe you're a farmer of all things."

Yasu laughed. "I admit it's not the first thing I would like to do, but for Nori and Miki I don't think there is anything I wouldn't."

Sora sighed wistfully. "And I suppose that makes all the difference in the world." She drifted across the pool to rest her arm on the far edge.

Yasu shook her head. "You're not going to tell me why you took them on, are you?"

Sora looked over her shoulder and grinned at her. "Nope."

"But they're good reasons?"

"Very good."

She sighed. "All right then, I'll butt out. Just know that I'm dying of curiosity." She smiled. "In any case, I'm glad you did."

Sora laughed. "Really?"

"I worried about you up here all alone. I mean, your partner and the closest thing you have to a brother ran off with each other and decided not to live up here with you."

Sora sorted. "I wouldn't exactly say you ran off with each other. Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten stuffed into that god awful bridesmaid dress." Yasu glared at hell and she rolled her eyes. "Seriously, I'm fine. How many times do I have to say that I'm happy that you and Nori got married."

"I know you are. But I'm glad you let others in. You'd gotten colder over the past few year, wandering about by yourself. They seem to be warming you back up again."

"I'd gotten cold! This coming from the former Ice Queen."

Yasu quirked an eyebrow at her and then pushed herself up out of the water. "Come on, we should probably get those two some dinner."

"Aw, look how sweet her mothering instincts are," Sora said as she followed suite. "The former Ice Queen, worried about making sure that everyone is fed and tucked away in their beds at a decent hour. Such a fine upstanding member of the community." She laughed as Yasu threw a towel at her.

"Fine upstanding member of the community or not I can still kick your ass."

Sora grinned. They hadn't fought each other with anything close to full force since Miki was born; they were simply too bad at making sure neither walked away injured. In fact, in a full out battle they didn't know who would win. But the threat of kicking each other's butt was traditional.

"I'm ready whenever you are."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"You fell in front of all those people?"

Hinata blushed and nodded. "I tripped on the hem of my kimono and landed face first on the ground. Worse, I was carrying the tea tray. I spilt tea all over the dignitaries." Her father had been incredibly angry at her, to mess up such an important meeting.

"What did you do?"

"I just lay there on the ground, looking at what I had done until I came to my senses and started trying to pick up the pieces of the cups. Father then ordered me back to my room." He never failed to bring it up whenever she failed something. If she couldn't even serve tea properly, how could they expect her to do anything? It always stung.

"Man I wouldn't want to be a Hyuuga. It's all rules, rules, rules."

Hinata stared at him. She supposed it was all rules, rules, rules.

There was a knock on the door and then it slid open. "Hello!" Sora beamed. "And how are you two doing?"

Naruto jumped up off the floor, ruining the quiet rapport he had established with Hinata. "Why the hell did you lock us in here?"

Sora waved him off with a swish of her hand and set the tray and drawstring bag she was carrying down on the floor. "Quit yapping. You're supposed to be talking to her not me," she said, pointing at Hinata who blushed.

"I have been talking to her, but you don't have to lock us in a room to get us to do that!" Hinata's blush deepened.

Sora shrugged. "What can I say? It's tradition."

"Keh, like you care anything about tradition!"

She pressed her hand to her chest. "Why Naruto-kun, I am wounded that you would think such a thing of me." She grinned. "Enjoy your dinner, kids. I'll come and let you out in the morning." And she slammed and sealed the door.

Naruto dropped back down onto cushion, arms crossed across his chest. "She's the most annoying person I've ever..." he muttered.

Hinata just smiled and moved to take the covers off of their dinner.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

The only light in the room was the dim light of the moon shining in through the window. They had found their pajamas and toothbrushes in the drawstring bag and taken turns in the bathroom. Now they were tucked away on their futons a few feet away from each other, but they hadn't said goodnight.

They hadn't talked about the partnership yet.

All of a sudden Naruto, who had been so gung ho about the idea of the partnership at first, was plagued by doubts. Hinata didn't know about the demon inside him, but her father did. And a man who called her a disappointment to the clan whenever she made the smallest mistake would surely have some choice words to say about him partnering with him. Staring up at the ceiling all he could think about was that he didn't want Hinata to be hurt because her family couldn't stand him. He never wanted anything to hurt her.

He watched the shadows on the ceiling and thought about the girl lying a few feet away. The way he felt about her was different than the way he felt about Sakura, he realized. With Sakura, most of the time he just wanted to impress her. Hinata brought up many more emotions in him, some of which he wasn't even able to begin to identify.

She deserved to know. She deserved to know about Kyubi, about why all the adults hated him. If she knew...he didn't know what she would do. He had never told anyone about Kyubi. No, he couldn't tell her, he couldn't risk losing her friendship. Obaa-chan had told him you shouldn't gamble with things that were important to you and his friendship with Hinata was too precious to lose.

So, he would have refuse the partner training and just get stronger on his own. Even with friends, there were some things he had to do alone.

He opened his mouth to tell her, when her voice cut through the darkness.

"Naruto-kun? I, I think we should do it." Her voice was soft and it sent a shiver down his spine. "I mean, I, I know that my family is going to be mad, but then again, they're always mad." She laughed softly at herself. She was going to get this out if it killed her.

"My family has been...telling me who I should be. But, but I'm not. Not who they want me to be. So I thought maybe, I should try being me. And I like the idea of being your partner." And hopefully, he wouldn't get caught in the crossfire between her and her family when they returned home.

Naruto turned on his side to look at her. He could just make out her form in the dim light, a big fluffy blanket with a small girl curled inside.

"No, we can't," he said.

Hinata sat up in bed. "But, but you said that we could go back to Leaf and wow everyone together and that..."

He forced a cheerful tone into his voice. "We can get stronger without being partners, right? We can just keep training the way we have and still wow them."

Tears began to run down her face. "I know there's probably someone better, someone stronger but, I just thought that maybe, see I'm here and...I just thought that you wanted to..." She breathed in hard and tried to stop her tears. "You're right. There is probably someone better than me. We'll just keep going on the way we have."

He was out of bed and by her side in a second. Shit, was that what she thought? "No, wait, Hinata-chan. I didn't mean it in that way. You have nothing to do with why we shouldn't be partners."

She tried to dry her cheeks with the back of her hand. "Then what is it?"

He looked down at his knees, hands clenched together. "You know all the adults hate me. Your father would be furious and I don't want to see him hate you because of me."

Suddenly she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. "I don't care! I don't know why they feel the way they do, but I..." Her voice started to break up as she started to cry harder.

"Hinata-chan," Naruto breathed, not quite sure what to do. Tentatively, he rested his hands on her back, then wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

She had let him be lonely for years because she was too frightened. Too frightened that he might not want to be her friend. Too frightened to go against her father. Too frightened that she might mess up. Looking back on her life, all of the times when she was most proud of herself, when she had stood up at the gennin exam, when she had kept climbing the tree, he had been there with her.

Where she once had been unsure that the partnership was the right thing, she now realized that it was the only way to go. Her inaction had kept them from being friends in the past and they had paid the price. She didn't want that to happen again.

Naruto looked down at the girl in his arms. He had never had a girl in his arms before, much less a crying one. But if not being partners with him was making her so sad...

If he didn't tell her about the Kyubi, when they returned to Hidden Leaf and her father asked her about it, she could honestly say she didn't know. Then wouldn't be to blame, would she? He would be the one everyone got mad at and that he was used to.

"Hey, Hina-chan..."

She pulled back slightly and looked up at him, startled by the use of her mother's old nickname.

He grinned at her. "Partners?" he asked.

Her eyes widened a bit and moved the rest of the way out of his arms. "You mean it?"

"Yeah, yeah. You convinced me. It'll be more fun to kick everybody's ass with you."

He grinned again and stuck out his hand. "So what do you say?"

She smiled back and slipped her hand into his. "Partners." .

**Original Author's Notes**: Fluffy, no? Thank you so much for your reviews! I am currently trying to decide between two possible routes for this story. One is to keep it as a stand-alone romance between Naruto and Hinata. The other is to expand it into a three-fic story that would take the reader all the way through the defeat of the bad guys. The divergence would come soon; so if you have an opinion, let me know. My email is . Thanks!!!


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

"So, it's settled then. You'll come down off of this godforsaken mountain and train at our house over the winter." Yasu stood in the courtyard, bag full of scrolls, ready to head back home.

"I'd hardly call this house godforsaken," Sora grumbled, leaning against the newel post at the end of the stairs.

"Whatever," she smiled at the two gennin sitting side by side on the stairs. "So, I will see both of you in a few months. Nori will teach you taijutsu. Meanwhile, us ladies can work on genjutsu And Sora will take care of Miki."

Sora snorted. "Leave the kid with me and I am taking her out of those kimonos she always wears and putting her in proper play clothes."

Yasu smiled. "You'll do nothing of the sort. She looks cute in kimonos."

She held her arms open and, rolling her eyes, Sora went to give her old friend a hug.

"Be safe," Yasu whispered.

"You too. Give my love to Nori and Miki," Sora whispered back.

Yasu pulled away and started to walk across the courtyard to the gate. Turning, she waved back to Naruto and Hinata. "See you soon!" She heaved the door open and slipped through.

Sora shook her head and bent down to pick up her cup to tea. "Honestly, the woman..." she trailed off as she took a sip of her tea.

Then she was jumping up and down, gasping for breath as she waved her hand in front of her mouth. "H-h-hot," she breathed.

Naruto was rolling on the ground laughing. Sora looked up and glared at him. "Naruto..."

"Ha Ha! I gotcha good!" He pointed at her and kept laughing. "I put chili pepper in your tea while you were hugging Yasu!" Suddenly it registered that Hinata was shaking his shoulder and calling his name.

"Huh?" he said looking up at her.

"Run!" she said.

He was so busy laughing that he didn't see the steam coming out of Sora's ears. Suddenly he realized that the best course of action was to run. Fast.

He scrambled up the stairs and into the house, Sora close on his heels.

"Goddamn it, Naruto! I'm going to kill you!" she screamed.

Hinata shook her head and continued to sip her tea.

The Great Prank War had begun.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Sora hated writing reports. Why did she have to do them anyway? Wasn't it enough that she was taking care of them? Plus Obaa-chan kept complaining about the reports she was writing. They were too short. They weren't detailed enough. They weren't coming every month like she had promised.

Honestly, the woman complained about everything. Still it had been, what two, three months since her last report? Had she sent one since her and Naruto's last big blowup? She didn't think so.

Well she supposed the woman had trained her for three years. She probably owed her a few reports here and there.

Dear Obaa-chan,

You should stop complaining about the number of reports you get. I suffer from low self esteem and all of your harsh messages are slowly breaking my heart.

There, that was a nice start. She continued on.

Naruto continues to be a brat. Last month he put black dye in my shampoo so that all of my streaks are gone. I don't even have any more dye, so I have to wait until we head into town to put them back in. I got him back by hiding all the ramen in the house for a week, but I unfortunately didn't have the heart to throw it away completely. I think I'm going soft.

Otherwise, both the kids are doing fine, so stop worrying. They're actually getting pretty good and thank heavens they seem to get alone. Hinata is still in love with him and can't tell him, but there is so much positive influence I can push on her. At least their friends now, which I don't think they really were before they came here.

My old partner Yasu came up here a few weeks ago. I think you two met a couple of times. Anyway, she and her husband Nori are going to help train the kids. We'll be wintering over at her place. The kids are thrilled. I think they're sick and tried of being holed up in here. We'll probably leave in a few months, around November.

They've also elected to do partner training so you'll want to keep them on the same team once they get back. Trust me, they'll be able to kick some serious ass. Oh, they'll always be able to work well on their own, but I'm starting to think they'll pass Yasu and me in terms of ability.

How's Ero-Sennin doing? You know I've never forgotten a certain confession you made that night you got particularly drunk on sake...

Love Sora

She looked down at what she had just written. Hmmm she really doubted that this would get intercepted, but you could never be too careful. So she probably shouldn't put in the part about going to train with Yasu. In fact, she should probably take out the part about Yasu altogether. Along with the part about their abilities and how they were training. It was better to have anyone who was reading this think that she was just protecting them. And she would take out the part about the prank war. She really didn't want it to get out that she had let him dye her hair black.

Crossing out the parts that didn't pass the censors, she re-wrote the letter.

Dear Obaa-chan,

You should stop complaining about the number of reports you get. I suffer from low self esteem and all of your harsh messages are slowly breaking my heart.

Both the kids are doing fine, so stop worrying. Hinata is still in love with him and can't tell him, but there is so much positive influence I can push on her. At least their friends now, which I don't think they really were before they came here.

How's Ero-Sennin doing? You know I've never forgotten a certain confession you made that night you got particularly drunk on sake...

Love Sora

There we go. Strait and to the point.

She signed it with a flare before sealing the letter. She opted to place a light seal on it before summoning her delivery service.

Symbols spider webbed out from her palm and there was an explosion of smoke. Sora watched as it cleared to reveal a small falcon, grasping at the edge of her desk.

It puffed up it's chest feathers and then cocked it's head to one side. "More deliveries?" it said.

Sora smiled. "If you would. I have one for Yasu and one for Obaa-chan."

The bird seemed to deflate. "All the way out to her?"

"It won't be that bad. Besides you said you liked flying out here."

He closed his eyes and twisted his head all the way around, refusing to look at her.

"Come on. I have some rabbit here you can have," she said in a high, coaxing voice.

He opened one eye and turned to look at her over his shoulder. "Fresh?"

"My students were practicing laying traps today. They caught it just a few hours ago. I even skinned it for you." She placed the plate on her desk a few feet away from the falcon. He turned and eyed it before raising his hooked beak in the air. He delicately lifted one leg to take a step towards the plate.

Which Sora lifted off the table. "You're going to deliver my messages? And wait for the replie?"

The falcon glared at her before giving one sharp nod.

Sora grinned at set the meat back on the table. "I knew you'd come around."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Hinata stood in one stance and the carefully moved into the next, making sure that every muscle was doing exactly what she wanted it to. This stance was similar to the basic stance of her family's gentle fist style: one hand out in front of her, the other fisted at her side. However, where he father had taught her to keep her center of gravity low, Sora had her keep it more towards her center so that she would be ready to move.

The parries from here were also similar in both styles. In fact, with a little bit of adjustment she could probably hit the same critical chakra junctions while doing the Shina-To-Be parries as she would have with her clan's style.

She smiled. It was the first step towards integrating the two styles like Sora had advised. Leaving what didn't work behind and taking what did work with you. "It's not easy," she had said. "In fact, I suck at it; I'm an all or nothing sort of girl. But it's unfortunately something every good fighter has to learn. Good stuff comes from everywhere, especially from your enemies."

She couldn't consider her family her enemy. Yes, they were a source of pain, but not because they hated her. More because she could never be what they wanted her to be. She was starting to come to terms with that idea. Leaving behind their expectations, but keeping their strength.

She moved onto the next stance which meant that she was suddenly facing Naruto. He was working on low spinning techniques, sweeping his enemy off his feet, dislocating ankles and breaking knees. He tumbled across the ground, taking out imaginary enemies.

She smiled. He was just plain fun to watch.

He stopped and halfway stood up, leaning heavily on his knees. He had more stamina than almost anyone else she knew, but he worked harder than anyone else she knew.

He looked up at her and grinned. "Hey Hina-chan."

She blushed although she wasn't sure if it was because he had caught her staring at him or because he kept calling her that.

"Hey I wanted to know if you would help me with the brush painting later." She smiled at that; despite months of trying, Naruto hadn't quite gotten the hang of the painting. He was determined to get at least a few decent ones out before he moved on. She was about to tell him sure, when he continued. "I think I've almost got the hang of the Sakura Blossoms and I want to be able to paint her one when we get back."

Hinata's heart fell like a stone. Sakura. Sometimes when they were out here, working all by themselves she forgot all about the girl he liked back home. It didn't matter that she was in love with someone else. Naruto had been chasing after her for as long as Hinata could remember. Sakrua with her perfect grades and perfect manners. She was like one of those characters out of basic reading book, everything oh so normal and oh so perfect, down to her candy pink hair. Pink hair for heavens sake! Hinata would have given anything to have her coloring instead of her heavy black hair and strange pale eyes.

But she was a Hyuunga and there were things you inherited along with the bloodline.

"Hina-chan?"

She looked up and suddenly realized that she had never answered his question.

"Gomen, Naruto-kun! Of course I'll look at your paintings."

He grinned and went to put his jacket on the side against the wall before he started his next practice set. Hinata was always cool like that, willing to help him out with whatever he needed. He was happy she'd come with him. It seemed as if she had almost popped up out of nowhere to be the perfect partner.

"Naruto-kun?"

He turned around to look at her. That expression that he couldn't read was on her face again. "Hai, Hina-chan."

She blushed. "Why do you like Sakura-san?"

"Huh? Why wouldn't I like Sakura-chan? She's my teammate."

Her blush deepened. She could feel her stutter starting to slip back into her voice, something that hadn't happened in weeks. "I, I mean, why do you like her as...as more than a friend?"

That made him blush. "Huh? Why do I like her?" he asked puzzled.

She quickly tried to make her question less conspicuous. "I mean, as your partner, I was just wonder what, what it was that, that-"her voice dropped to a whisper. "made you like her. And not...someone else."

He started at her, puzzled.

She suddenly felt like crying. "Gomenasai! It was a silly question!" She ran up the stairs and into the house as quickly as she could.

Naruto stared after her. That had been really, really strange. Why had she acted like that? It was almost as if she had been embarrassed to ask him. She had asked him a question and hadn't even stayed for an answer.

But that wasn't the strangest part. The really, really, really strange part was that he didn't have an answer.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

The question almost seemed to haunt Naruto. It was like a little part at the back of his brain had been rubbed raw and that even the slightest movement in its direction would send ribbons of irritation out through his whole brain.

Why did he like Sakura?

He had realized when he was twelve that all of a sudden all of the girls were pointing and giggling at some of the boys in his class, mainly Sasuke. One day while trying to hide after pulling off one of his pranks he happened to end up in a tree over a few older girls who were talking about their boyfriends.

"I just love him so much!" one of them had said. "At first when he asked me out, I wasn't interested but he was just so sweet and persistent. He just kept asking no matter how many times I said no. Now I always want to be with him."

The persistent part had permanently filed itself away in his brain; dating was just like everything else: you just kept trying until the other person gave in. So when he looked at Sakura across the room the next day, he had simply decided that she would work as a good girlfriend and persistently pursued her for years.

But somehow, he didn't think that was what Hina-chan had meant. She had asked why he liked Sakura and not somebody else. And while he could list several neat thinks about Sakura, he couldn't really say he liked her because of them.

If he liked her and didn't like others, then there had to be something about her that made her different, right?

He groaned. There was unfortunately only one person he could ask about this and it was not going to be fun.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto sauntered into the kitchen. "Oye, Nee-chan."

Sora slowly looked over one shoulder at him from where she was chopping vegetables, one eyebrow raised. "Yes, Naruto-kun?"

He tried to walk nonchalantly over to her and failed miserably. "I have a question for you."

Her eyebrow inched higher. Since when did Naruto ask permission to ask questions? "Fire away," she said suspiciously.

He shifted from foot to foot, obviously nervous. "Why do people...you know...like each other?"

Sora went pale. "Dear god, please don't tell me you want to give you the whole birds and the bees talk!"

"Ahhhhhh! No, no, no!" Naruto's face was red with embarrassment as he frantically waved his hands in front of him as if trying to ward her off. "I know that stuff already!" Ikrua had made him listen to it just after he had graduated. He shuddered at the memory. It was not something he wanted to repeat.

She let out a huge sigh in relief. "Thank heavens. Wait, then what do you mean why do people like each other?" She giggled. "Do you like someone, Naruto-kun?"

"THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" he yelled.

She grinned from ear to ear. "Come on, tell me who it is. Are you starting to like Hinata-chan?"

"NO! STOP PUTTING WORDS IN MY MOUTH!"

She rolled her eyes. She supposed it would have been too easy for him to be secretly liking Hinata back. Secrecy wasn't something Naruto did well. "Allright, allright. Then what is this about?"

He sighed. He was going to have to explain the whole thing to her. "See, Hina-chan asked me why I liked Sakura-chan and-"

"HA! You just told me who you like!" She did a little dance.

"I DON'T CARE! I just don't know how to deal with this."

"Wait, you want advice from ME about your love life? Oh, no, honey let me tell you I am the wrong girl to be asking. Those pictures Yasu was threatening to show you?" She leaned in close to him and started to whisper. "They're scary."

He crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. "I'm not asking you for advice. I just didn't have an answer for her," he said grumpily.

"About why you like Sakura?"

He nodded.

Sora shrugged. "That shouldn't be too hard to answer. You like Hinata- chan, right?"

"Eh, not like that!"

She sighed. "I know, you already told me. Why do you like her as a friend?"

"Why do I like her as a friends?"

"Yes, what makes her different from other people who know whom you are not friends with?"

He pushed himself up to sit on the counter where she was chopping. Once he started thinking about it, the answer came surprisingly easily. "Hina- chan's cool. She's always willing to help me out and she's always nice and does cool things like make me ramen when she's having tea. She's a good training partner too; she works hard. Oh and she's teaching me how to brush paint."

"Any what's cool about Sakura?"

He looked up at the ceiling. This was a lot harder that in was for Hina- chan. "She's pretty and she's smart and..." He trailed off, trying to think of more. "She's on my team."

Sora snorted. "That's it? She's pretty, smart and on your team."

"Hai."

She gave him a skeptic look. "You sure you're interested in her?"

Not be interested in Sakura? Well, Sasuke wasn't interested in any girls and the only girls Kakashi was interested in seemed to be those in Come Come Paradise. In fact the only other guy he knew who really pursued girls was Ero-Sennin. He scrunched up his nose. He didn't want to turn into him!"

Sora shook her head and started gesturing at him with the knife she was using. "Look kid, as I said my dating record is not a pretty thing and I could have this wrong. Maybe you'll want to ask Nori some of these things once we get down there for your advice. But, even when I wonder what I was thinking after the fact, I always knew why I was interested in the guy. Maybe if you can't come up with a reason why you like Sakura, it's because you don't like her."

"Huh?"

"People grow up, people move on. Maybe you used to really like her, but if you were still in love with her, I would have expected you to have an easier time coming up with good things about her than good things about Hinata." She smiled. "Just think about it Naruto."

Maybe he didn't like Sakura? Huh. Well that was something that hadn't occurred to him before. Maybe he didn't really like her.

Suddenly he had the strong urge to talk to Hinata. Hopping off the counter, he headed the door.

"You're welcome, Naruto," Sora called out over her shoulder.

He turned and looked at her from the doorway. "Hey, Nee-chan do you have copies of those pictures of your ex-boyfriends."

"They are hidden away where you will never find them."

He grinned. "Thank's Nee-chan."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

He found Hinata just outside her room, dressed in a robe and holding all of her bath supplies.

"Hey, Hina-chan, I wanted to talk to you."

She nervously pulled the collar of her robe a little tighter. "Um, well, Naruto-kun, I'm on my way to the bath."

"That's cool," he said but continued to talk to her anyway. "See I was thinking about the question you had asked me earlier..." and he preceded to launch into a description of the girls under the tree and seeing Sakura in the classroom and Sora saying she had a bad dating record and about her saying that they're needed to be reasons.

Hinata just stared at him.

"So, you see I'm starting to think that maybe I don't like her." He finished.

"What?" She was almost frightened to hope that he was saying what she thought he was saying.

"I don't think I like her." He grinned. "Weird, huh?"

She couldn't say anything. There were too many thoughts running through her head.

So she did the only think she could think of.

She smiled.

**Original Author's Notes**: This chapter was a little short, I know, but I really just wanted to get this particular problem out of the way. I enjoyed writing it though because it gave me a change to write Naruto a little bit more grown up.

Just a brief note on Hinata's fighting style. When I watched the animated version of the Hinata Neji fight, I noticed that both of them are basically standing in one place throwing strikes at each other. This is traditional of a lot of martial arts something my teachers have always been critical of because it is not terribly good when your opponent is larger than you (I used to help teach a self defense form based on Muey Thai and Sambo where almost all the students were women and therefore almost all the attackers were larger you). What Hinata is doing is taking the soft fist chakra strikes (which I agree is perfect for her) and integrating them into a more mobile system of movement. Then again I know just enough about fighting to realize how little I know about fighting. Plus 95 of the fights you see in TV and movies don't make a lot of sense when you think about the physics. Suspend your disbelief.

Also Hinata's name translates loosely as a patch of sunlight, which I absolutely love. Hina on its own is doll, which also has a special place in my heart because it is what my mother calls me.

I'm screwing my courage to the sticking place and planning to write all three stories. That doesn't mean that this one will be any shorter, just that it will have a slightly different ending and a bit of foreshadowing. I just hope my wonderful beta David will stick with me!

I'm updating the Sora-Naruto fight in chapter 7 so you can read that as well if you wish.

Finally, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your reviews! There seemed to be an explosion of them during a particularly rough spot in my life and they really lifted my spirits.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Sora had finally decided to take the two of them off the mountain, even if it wasn't to civilization.

"I've got to make sure both of you can spin properly before I hand you over to Nori. So we're going to go diving."

"Diving?" Hinata had questioned.

"Mmmhmm. I know a great place we can practice diving so that ya'll can get the hang of spinning around."

"But it's October!"

Sora shrugged. "So you'll have to use chakra to keep yourselves warm. It's good training."

It was decided that Naruto would be able to get by in his boxer shorts, but Hinata was not about to go swimming in her underwear. She was wholly unconvinced that swimming was a good idea anyway. But, no matter how much Naruto protested, Sora would not be swayed. She had to teach them how to dive.

Unfortunately, Hinata's lack of swimsuit meant that Sora was up in one of the storage rooms looking through her old clothes, declaring that she probably has an old bathing suit she could wear.

Hinta's mind kept returning to the picture of Sora in the lace up dress and her stomach turned uncomfortably.

"Ano, Onee-chan? Are you, are your sure you want to..." Her voice trailed off.

Sora looked up from where she was digging through one of the boxes. "Geez Hinata, you haven't sounded like that in months. Is something wrong?"

"Ano, no, it's just that-"

"Ah HA! Here's one!" Sora pulled out a handful of black scraps and tossed them to Hinata. "Go try that one on, I know I another one around her somewhere." She moved to open another box.

Hinata tentatively took the swimsuit down to her room. Pulling a screen into one corner, she slipped off her clothes and pulled on the bathing suit. It had two pieces, neither of which had much fabric in them. The top tied in the front and seemed to push her breast up and together. The very small bottoms tied together on the sides.

One little tug and the whole thing would be off. She would have to use chakra just to keep the suit on, plus more to keep herself from getting hypothermia.

There was a loud knock on the door and then it slid open without waiting for a response. "Ne, Hina-chan, how's the search for the swimsuit going?"

Hinata backed herself up against the wall behind the wall. What on earth was he doing here? "Na, Naruto-kun..."

"Do you have one on now?"

She blushed bright red. "Hai, demo..."

"Really?" And suddenly Naruto's head peaked around the edge of the screen.

Hinata's eyes went wide her blush deepened, her mouth opened in a gasp. Naruto had simply frozen. It hadn't occurred to him that she would have on anything but a one piece swimsuit. That...was not a one piece suit. Wow. He hadn't realized she had such nice-

Instantly sever embarrassment set in on both of them. Hinata began screaming while frantically trying to cover herself with her hands. Naruto was yelling "Ahhhh, So.. I mean, I'm sorry!" While he waved his arms around in front of him. Unfortunate this resulted in him hitting the screen with his arm, causing it to topple over. This coincided with Sora slamming the door open and walking into the room.

"Hey, Hinata-chan I've found two more," she said holding up a suit in each hand. "Oh, that one looks nice though."

Hinata looked at the suits in Sora's hands. One was leopard print. The other seemed to be a mass of straps with metal rings. She looked down at herself and then over at Naruto who was still staring at her with wide eyes.

She squeezed her eyes shut. "NO!" she yelled.

Sora's eyes sparkled. "No what?" she asked.

"It's ridiculous for us to go diving this time of year! We're going to use up way too much of our chakra just keeping warm, plus I'm going to have to use more chakra to keep these suits on. Surely there is another way for us to learn the summersaulting!"

Sora leaned up against the doorframe and grinned from ear to ear. "Phew! I thought I might have to haul you all the way down to the river before you said no."

"Huh?" Naruto and Hinata said at the same time.

Sora laughed softly. They were starting to rub off on each other. "You need to learn how to stand up for yourself and your opinions. Naruto will always train, no matter how stupid the circumstances. You need to learn to think for yourself and not just agree with what he says."

"But I don't-"

"Oh you'll give your opinion, abet hesitantly, if someone asks you. But actually protesting something?" She shook her head. "Not your thing."

Hinata stared at her. "So you threatened to make me go swimming in October in one of your old bathing suits?"

"Not swimming, diving. Trust me its worse. With swimming you're in the water all the time. Diving you're in and out of the water. Plus from the heights were talking about, the water feels hard." She kept smiling.

Hinata just stared.

"Eh? That's not very nice!!!" Naruto yelled, pointing at Sora. "What are you complaining about? You got see her in one of my skimpy swimsuits!"

A fresh wave of shock set in. They both turned bright red.

Sora was biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. "But I suppose that's nothing special." She pushed the swimsuits into one of her coat pockets, then quickly pulled out a camera and snapped a picture of the two again. "After all, this will be preserved in time forever." She giggled and started snapping more pictures as the pair slowly starts to recover.

Hinata starts to move to grab the camera, realizes that she is still in the swimsuit and turns to move towards the closet where her robe it. This unfortunately brings her right into Naruto's path; they both collide and fall together onto the screen.

They struggle to get up while Sora howls with laughter and snapped more pictures. They were only able to recover their feet as Sora finished off the roll. By the time they made it to the door she was gone.

"Oh no," Hinata whispered. "If those pictures ever get off this mountain, my father is going to kill me."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"One handed seals," Sora said.

Naruto looked up at her, ramen noodles hanging out of the corner of his mouth. "One handed seals?"

"That's what we're going to work on today: one handed seals. You two have enough theory now to get them plus it will make your time with Yasu far more productive."

"What do you mean one handed seals?" Hinata asked from across the table.

"Like the ones Naruto saw done in Wave Country. They're a bitch to learn, let me tell you. But it makes a lot of things quicker."

"The ones Haku did?" Naurto asked. He whooped with joy when Sora nodded. "All right! This it going to kick ass!"

Sora smiled at his enthusiasm. "OK, kids pop quiz time. Why do we do seals?"

Naruto rolls his eyes. "That's academy stuff. You use seals to mold chakra into patterns so that you can use it in jutsus."

"We control chakra without using seals all the time. Why bother with them?"

Naruto snorted. "Easy. Seals automatically mold chakra in really complicated ways. Its possible to mold chakra from jutsu's on your own without the seals, but it would be really hard and take really long."

It was a simplification, of course, but basically he had the idea right. Sora decides to continue. "Then, starting from there, what could one handed seals be for?"

They sat there trying to puzzle it out. "More ways to mold chakra?" Hinata asked.

"Bingo. Either of you play piano?" They shook their heads. "Well tough cause this is the only metaphor I know for one handed seals."

"Eh? But I just said I don't play piano! How am I supposed to get it?"

"Deal, Naruto, it isn't that hard. Now on a piano you have white keys and black keys. With me so far?" They nodded. "Now the distance between two white keys is generally a whole step. Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do." She quickly sang a scale up. "That is a major scale. However if you include the black keys on the piano, you get a chromatic scale." She sang the scale again. "Now the one handed seals are like the black notes. They're sort of stuck in between the regular seals."

They stared at her blankly. She put her head down on the table. It must not work very well if you didn't know music. Damn it how could she explain this to them?

"So," Hinata said hesitantly. "They're like secondary colors. We've been using primary colors like red, blue and green and now you're going to teach us secondary colors?"

Sora slapped her hand on the table. "Yes! That's not quite how I was thinking about it, but it'll work. So when you have more colors/notes you can create more paintings/melodies."

The two women grinned at each other. Naruto looked back and forth between the two of them. "So they're new seals so that we can do more things."

"Well if you want to really simplify it," Sora said.

He pumped one of his fists into the air. "All right! New seals to do new things! When do we start?"

"Right after breakfast."

And sure enough the three of them were outside in the courtyard practicing the 'half seals' as soon as the dishes had been washed clean with the special jutsu. It was, as Sora had said, extremely hard. With music, the notes seemed almost naturally there; half seals were something you had to search for and they were not always easy to find.

Once you found them though, they got easier to locate with each try. By the time the day was almost over they had found three as were able to use the first with decent regularity.

At dusk, Naruto excused himself to use the restroom. Sora dismissed him with a wave of her hand and kept trying to teach Hinata half ram.

He ran up to his room to grab a bag of supplies before walking silently down the hall to the door to Sora's room. Being a partner meant looking out for each other, right? He knew Hinata was terrified that the pictures of the two of them on the floor were going to somehow get off the mountain. So he would simply go into Sora's room and get the roll of film for her.

Although part of him didn't want to see the pictures destroyed...

He shook his head and concentrated on the task at hand. There was a ward on Sora's room but it was only a light one. She probably would put a more formidable one on once she had found out what he had done, but that would be too late. He would have gotten that roll of film she had taken of Hinata in the bikini. And all the pictures of her ex-boyfriends. And any other embarrassing ones he could find. And he would have accomplished a few more interesting little pranks on her.

He slowly undid the ward and slid into the room. He started. It was red. A large bed covered in bright green material took up a huge chunk of floorspace along with an enourmous desk. Somehow he was not surprised. There was also a large bookcase which what looked like photo albums lining the bottom two shelves.

Naruto grinned and was heading right for them when something on the desk caught his eye. It was a framed copy of the picture Sora had taken a month after they had gotten here, the three of them sitting on the countertop in their pajamas. He was surprised to find it on her desk when there was another copy downstairs on the living room table. He knew it had to mean something, he just wasn't sure what.

Putting that picture back on the desk, he picked up another one. It was Nanashi and Sora standing together in a forest, Nanashi obviously trying to explain something to Sora, bending down to look her in the eye. Sora just looked confused. Naruto smiled and put the photo back.

Then another picture caught his eye. Nestled between a photo of Yasu's wedding and Miki crawling on the rug was a photo of Sora a little but older than the others, probably nine or ten. The photo was obviously taken by someone standing above her and she had turned her head up to smile into the camera. There was joy on her face and she was holding something up in here arms. He realized it was a tiny baby, probably just a few hours old. He squinted at the photo. Did that baby have...

No, that was impossible.

But then he saw another picture and his heard stopped. Letting the one of Sora clatter onto the desktop, he picked up the photo with trembling hands. It was Nanashi, obviously exhausted but beaming at the camera. In her arms was the baby and sitting next to her was Sora. But on her other side...

There was a man and a boy. The man sat half behind her half beside her, arms wrapped around her and the baby while he grinned from ear to ear, his blond hair shooting out in all directions. Standing on the ground next to him was a boy, slouching slightly, with his hands thrust deep in his pockets. Despite the fact that he was probably no older than 13 or 14, his hair was gray and both of his eyes looked sleepy from where they peaked out from over his face mask.

He had two normal eyes, but there couldn't be any doubt as to who the boy was, nor the man holding onto Nanashi. But the baby...

He grabbed the other picture and looked once again at the baby's face. There they were, three dark lines slashing down either cheek.

His mind was overloaded. Somewhere in these pictures were the answers to questions he had long ago stopped believing there were answers to. Frantically he tried to figure out how these two pieces could fit into the puzzle, but each bit of information didn't seem to quite fit.

He put the pictures down to look through the other frames on her desk. Nothing. They were all pictures of Yasu and her family. There were no more with the baby.

He let out a noise that sounded almost like a growl. This all fit together somehow.

Then he looked down at the picture of Sora and the baby. His eyes narrowed. She knew he realized. She knew what this was all about: the pictures were in her room. That was her teacher.

Anger started to bubble up in him. She had to know the truth and yet she had kept it from him. He had been here for almost eight months and yet she had never even hinted that she knew anything about his past. The lines on the side of his face began to widen.

He snatched up the pictures and swept out of the room. She would still be in the courtyard practicing with Hinata. She would tell him everything. He would make her tell him.

The door to the house slammed open, causing both the women to turn and look. Their eyes widened. His anger was almost palpable, rolling off of him. He came charging down the stairs at them.

"Naruto what's wrong?" Sora asked as Hinata took a step backwards, whispering his name softly.

Naruto thrust the group picture into Sora's face and watched her pale. He was breathing hard and his word came in gasps. "You, Nanashi, the Fourth, Kakashi and... ME!!" he said. "What the HELL is going on?!"


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! She marveled at her own stupidity... She should have known that he would go into her room! Why the hell hadn't she put a stronger ward on it? Now...

Now he had seen the pictures she had hidden from him since the first day he got there. Now the normally small stripes on either side of his cheeks were wide and jagged and his eyes were starting to head towards yellow. Now she had to go back and tell him everything.

She had betrayed him, she realized, even more than she thought she had. And that betrayal had hit him deeper than she had ever expected. She had been fooling herself into thinking that she wasn't doing to him the same thing her father had done to her. Now she just had to hope that she would have better control than she had.

"Naruto-kun, you need to calm down."

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!" he screamed. "TELL ME WHAT THE HELL THIS IS!"

Sora swallowed and watched Hinata cringe. He wasn't stable. The aura of Kyubi was starting to get through, playing up his anger, trying to get free. She couldn't be sure what was going to happen, and until she was... "Hinata, I want you to go inside."

Hinata looked at Sora and then back at Naruto, standing on the stairs, eyes locked on each other. "Demo..."

"Hinata," Sora's voice was deadly calm. "This is something that Naruto and I need to work out on our own."

"But then I need to-"

Irritation started to creep into her voice. "I know that normally you referee these things but you can't do it this time. Get in the house."

Hinata hesitated once more, and then slowly began to climb the stairs from the courtyard leading back up to the house. Her steps were deliberately slow as she fought the urge to run to him and from him at the same time. She passed Naruto at the top of the stairs, but he didn't even turn to look at her. He just kept staring at Sora, anger burning. Quietly, Hinata slipped inside.

Once the door was closed, Sora started making a slow measured journey up the stairs one step at a time. "I know that you hate me right now, and I can't really say I blame you. But if you come at me with full Kyubi force all that's going to happen is that one or both of us is going to get hurt."

"I DON'T CARE WHO GETS HURT! I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!" He threw the photo of the two of them at her and she was only just able to catch it before it hit her in the face. His breathing was harsh and labored.

She put the photo down on the stairs and kept moving towards him. Calm. She had to remain calm. "I'm going to tell you. I'll tell you everything. Once I have, you can call me as many names and tear me into as many pieces as you like. But right now I'm seeing a little too much Kyubi and not enough you."

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?" he roared. She could feel the chakra swelling around him.

"It means that you're transforming!. Your eyes, your hands, your face! You can't tap into the Kyubi's power uncontrolled like this or you'll risk letting him out, so please! Calm down!"

He didn't understand what she was talking about until he started to look at the chakra he was gathering in preparation to attack her. It was red, defiantly pulled from the demon inside him. But he didn't understand when he had started using it.

He continued to glare at her, but she could tell he was gradually loosing momentum. She had to keep pushing. "Please, Naruto," she said quietly.

His mind was still full of fire, but all of a sudden it got through to him that this wasn't Sora as she normally was. She seemed sad, regretful. It was so strange to see the normally sarcastic, abrasive Sora so penitent that it cut through enough of the haze for him to see that she was right: his feelings were giving Kyubi the control and he did need to calm down.

He dropped onto the top stair and stared at the picture in his hand. He'd gripped it so hard that he had broken the glass. Sora breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked up at her, clearly still irritated. "Explain."

She breathed in deeply and tried to let go of some of the tension. "I'm trying to figure out where to begin."

He looked down at the picture again, running his fingertips along the cracks in the glass. "Are they-"

"Yes. That's you, me, Kakashi-kun..." She took a deep breath. "Your mother, Nanashi-sensei, and your father, the Fourth."

"They're my parents?" He had barely dared to consider the possibility.

She gave him a watery smile. "Yeah. They're your parents. You're just a few hours old there."

He swallowed hard. It still wasn't adding up in his head. "How?"

"It's a rather long story," she said, rubbing her eyes.

"Do you think I care about that?!" he yelled. "Tell me!"

Sora let out a deep sigh. Tentatively she moved close to him on the stairs and when he didn't protest, she sat down. She tried to think of where to begin. Her voice was quietly sad; the pain had dulled but it hadn't gone completely. "I met Nanashi-sensei when I was seven years old and she was in her late twenties. If it wasn't for her, I would be dead. I'm still not really sure why she decided to keep me after she saved me. She could have easily dropped me off somewhere; she certainly knew enough people who would be happy to take in another fighter, even a half trained seven year old. Instead I somehow ended up as her only apprentice and she was the closest thing I've ever had to a mother." She shook her head. "The closest think to a family."

She was silent for a moment looking off into the distance, replaying old memories in her mind. Naruto stared at her profile for a few seconds. "What was she like?" he whispered.

Sora started and then turned towards him with a soft smiled. "Bright, warm, full of life. She was sweet, but not a pushover by any means. She took my hand and just sort of pulled me along with her, into her sunlight. She told me once that when you saw as much darkness as she had, it was even more important to be light."

"But in any case the important part of Nanashi's life was not me. She isn't well known where you come from, but back in the west she's sort of a legendary figure. She never told me much about her life but the stories say that she had been born into a neutral."

"A neutral?" Naruto asked quietly, not understanding the term.

Sora looked down at him and then quickly back out at the sky. "Sorry, western slang. One who isn't involved in politics. Most families in the west are members of clans or gangs or organizations that are fighting for power in the cities. The official government is constantly changing and constantly being bribed or threatened or otherwise manipulated. The unofficial government is whoever has the most power at the time and they're the one most people pay attention to. Neutrals are families who try to stay out of the way, but unfortunately sometimes that isn't possible."

"So then, Nanashi's family?" he asked hesitantly.

Her voice dropped to almost a whisper. "Nanashi's entire family was killed when she was fourteen, although the rumors as to how that happened are many and varied. Some say her family was executed by one of the gangs. Others say they simply got caught in the line of fire during a street fight. Whatever happened, it was bad enough that, even when she was an adult, it still gave her nightmares from time to time.

"However, while it could turn into a classic tale of revenge where she blames whatever party she thought responsible and sets out to kill all of them, Nanashi did something different. She blamed the way the whole city, the whole west, was run, the fact that there was no one to protect the families who just wanted to live their lives, the fact that there was no government able to move people towards any sort of common ground. The fact that everything was, in essence, chaos. Even as people fought each other they fought amongst themselves for power in their clans and gangs. And so Nanashi decided that she wanted to figure out how to end it. And that was what she spent the rest of her life trying to do.

"She became something of a vagabond. She went to all of the cities and looked at all the libraries. She read histories and went out into the streets to talk to people. She came up with that scroll I started you out on, trying to find new, non-violent ways to train and use chakra. As she got older she started to teach Neutrals how to band together against the clans and gangs and how to form those bands so that they wouldn't collapse into violence. She built this house where she intended to start a teaching community to show people what it would be like outside the city and how you could pour your resources into defense instead of offense."

"What was she some kind of pacifist?"

Sora shook her head. "No, she just...you have to understand that the level of day to day violence in the west is 10 times higher than in the east. It wasn't that she was completely against defending yourself or learning to fight; she just wanted there to be an end to the constant fighting. She wanted the society to be based on something more than power struggles. She ended up out in the east trying to learn more about the hidden villages. By this time she was in her late twenties with an almost legendary quality about her, extremely well respected but also highly opinionated about how things were supposed to be run. The original Kages had had very similar ideas to her about banning people together so that there could be some peace. The villages seemed to be better organized than most of the west and she was eager to see how much of it was actually working."

She smiled and brushed the tears off of her cheeks. "Two weeks into her trip she found me. She pulled me out of the wreckage; saved my life and then teased me into smiling. The next thing I knew I was just sort of following along behind her." Her eyes started to fill with tears. "I thought she was a goddess. She was beautiful and bright completely different from anyone I had ever known."

"Shortly after I started traveling with her we stopped at Hidden Leaf Village for a few days. She was still doing her study of the different villages of the East, so we stayed in a hotel for a few days, looked around and used the library. We spent an afternoon tucked in a corner of the stacks while she explained Leaf government to me. Nanashi was not completely convinced that the way the villages are set up is the best, so I was learning about a lot of flaws."

Naruto looked up, startled and slightly miffed. "Nani? What did she find wrong with Leaf?"

Sora tried to dismiss the comment with a wave of her hand. "Complicated things."

"Like what?"

"The instability of economies based on violence, disadvantages of having large standing shinobi groups, mismanagement of blood limit clans, trade problems, you know, boring political stuff."

Naruto blinked. He thought he had gotten most of that. "You mean she just taught you all the things that she thought was wrong with Leaf?"

Sora actually grinned. "Don't worry; there was one man at the library that was a very big fan of the village system. Someone who could, very calmly and with great dignity explain why Nanashi was completely wrong. Someone who was very much qualified to defend Leaf as he was one of its heads."

Naruto looked up at her. "The fourth?"

She nodded. "He resented the fact that I was being told all of these uncomplimentary things about his village and the next thing I know this tall man with wild blond hair had plopped himself down into a chair next to me and was explaining how Nanashi was wrong."

"Needless to say, Nanashi was none too thrilled with this and I was caught in the middle of a large and rather loud debate which lasted well into the night. They were hushed by the librarians at least a dozen times and I didn't get fed. However, the man had some good points, he knew his stuff and wasn't insulting Nanashi, just disagreeing with her. Plus he brought me chocolate the next day as an apology for making me miss my dinner, making me an instant fan. But I think the thing that finally won Nanashi over was how much he obviously loved the village and the people in it. There was nothing she hated more than leaders who didn't care about their people. Nanashi complained that the villages were too large, that it was impossible for the leadership to think about every individual with every decision, but he seemed to be able to do it. This was a good thing considering he was the Fourth Hokage. And a good Kage makes all the difference in the world to a village."

"We stayed longer than we intended, but he had already won me over by bringing me chocolate. I sat happily in the library or out in the woods eating chocolate and practicing techniques from the damn scroll while they debated things like how many levels of bureaucracy was too many and whether or not trade between villages would stabilize relations enough to reduce shinobi numbers. Even back then, I could tell she was impressed by him."

"In fact, he impressed her enough that she agreed to continue the debate in letter form. For the next few months we wandered from village to village. It was not easy to send and receive letters on the road, but over the next year the number of letters they sent to each other actually increased."

"A few months after they started writing letters, Nanashi and I returned to Hidden Leaf and he met us on the edge of a crevice a few miles out from town. They just stood and stared at each other and then, very slowly, they started to smile. And even though I was just eight years old, I could tell; these were two people in love."

She turned to look Naruto in the eye. "You see, there was never anyone else like Nanashi or the Fourth and it didn't take long for them to realize that, positions on specific issues excluded, they were perfect for each other. They were people who had decided by choice that their lives were not their own. Not many people can or would do that: willingly give their entire lives to helping others. In the end that's what bonded them together. They were..."

She trailed off as tears started to form again in her eyes. "Gods Naruto, you don't know how much you resemble them. It freaked me out the first time I met you. You look like him, you act like her and the things you talk about are the beginnings of the same things they used to. He was always very calm, very soothing and able to smooth things over but fiercely protective of the Leaf. She was a bundle of energy, ready to charge right into whatever needed to be done." She sniffed and gave him a watery smile. "And I don't think I've ever seen two people so in love in my life."

She swallowed hard as the happy memory slipped away.

"However, the unfortunate fact of the matter was that fate was not going to be kind to them. They were in love and they weren't able to tell anyone. This was how I met Kakashi-kun. He was the Fourth's prize student and one he trusted with his life and the secret of Nanashi. So he was brought in to help orchestrate everything. They were two of the best ninjas of their time and keeping the secret wasn't impossible but it was damn hard. You should try keeping something like this from an entire village, including Ero-sennin, Obaa-chan and the Third. It was not easy. So they called in their students to help. We were the messengers: he could go wherever he wanted and no one thought much about one quiet eight-year-old running around."

Naruto interrupted. "I don't get it. Why'd they have to keep it a secret?"

"No one knew her in the east; she was just another random traveler. Plus The Leaf was at war. The Fourth was something of an icon in the village; he had been extremely young when he was made Hokage. Plus they weren't exactly trusting of foreigners. For him to marry an outsider not even someone from another village but someone from the east, someone who wanted to change the village they were dying to defend would have felt like a betrayal and they couldn't deal with a divided village at that point. Leaf was just holding it's own in the war; seemingly loosing an icon could have destroyed them."

His eyes narrowed. "You mean to tell me that no one knows my parents were together because the village wouldn't like it?"

"They didn't want to the division the sudden appearance of Nanashi would make. As it was they only told Kakashi and I so that if everyone found out, the betrayal would be limited to the four of us. The villagers in Hidden Leaf were just so unable to accept an act like that in such a time. At a time of peace they might have been able to do it. They might have been able to accept Nanashi and she might have been able to help make the village better."

Her eyes clouded over with resentment and a hint on anger. "But they were too fucking closed minded to even consider it. The few times we ventured into the village we were met with suspicion and hostility. The war, which was nothing more than a power struggle, had made the village close in on itself even further and close itself off to everything. Every time we dared to try, it was like watching Nanashi's hope simply fade away. After someone accused us of being spies, we decided that we couldn't go back anymore."

She rested her fingertips on her temples and her elbows on her knees. "But they were so much in love and while it probably would have been better for them to wait, they really wanted to get married. And so they did; I have the pictures upstairs. It was small: Kakashi and I were the only witnesses. It was sort of like a token of happiness for all they were being asked to do: you can't be together, but you can at least be married and not together. Afterwards Nanashi and I took up permanent residence here and would go and visit him. It was rough on both of them, but there were only so many options at their disposal. But as I said, they chose to live lives that were not their own.

"It was at this point that the best and worst thing that could have happened happened: Nanashi became pregnant."

"With me." Suddenly Naruto realized he was shaking.

"Part of them was ecstatic: they wanted a child more than anything. But at the same time, The Fourth was still living in Leaf and Nanashi and I were living here. Even going full speed it takes two and a half days to travel. There was only so often they could go back and forth, especially with the war. They were having an increasingly hard time seeing each other at all. Trying to raise a child that way was going to be extremely rough."

"But then a miracle seemed to happen and the war started to end three months before Nanashi was due to give birth. You should have seen them when he told her the news; They were so ecstatic it was nearly funny. Once the treaty was signed, the Fourth was going to tell the Third and then the council and then bring Nanashi down into Leaf to give birth. They were even going to adopt me, make me part of the family too. I was finally going to be part of a real family. We were going to be a real family."

"And so we packed up our things headed down the mountain to stay in the next village over until the Fourth could explain things and then bring us on over. And then fate decided that once again to...fuck everything up. Less than a week after the treaty had been signed and two days before the announcement was to be made, reports of the Kyuubi came in from the borders and all the shinobi had to be mobilized again. But nothing they could do seemed to stop the demon."

Naruto had gone silent, realizing that this was it. This was what he had always wanted to know and what no one had been able or willing to tell him.

"It was actually Nanashi who came up with the idea of sealing the demon instead of trying to killing it, although it was the fourth who figured out how. The problem was that there was only one seal powerful enough to pull the spirit of the Kyubi out of it's body: Fuuin Jutsu. Shiki Fuujin(Enchantment Spell. Dead Demon Imprisonment). It's a Kinjutsu contract technique, known only to people in the Kage level. You literally make a deal with a spirit of death. The spirit is powerful enough to seal almost anything, but the price you pay for sealing someone's soul is your own. Both of you are locked away in a cold, dark, hell together, fighting for eternity.

"But sealing the Kyubi in a hell like that would have been disastrous; being a demon himself he might have been able to siphon the power off the human souls inside until the grave keeper was weak enough for him to escape and return even more powerful. They had to use a second seal, the Hakke seal, in order to use a container. A strong one."

His eyes were full of tears. "Me. They used me."

"They didn't want to choose you, but they were worried that if they didn't use someone very young, their body wouldn't be able to adapt. Kyubi arrived in the village three days after you were born. With you so young, it was hopeful that over the course of your life that the Kyubi and its chakra would fuse with you, so that when the time came, you could carry it with you into the next world."

"But the contract with Death demands two souls. The soul of the sealer and the soul of the sealed. Plus, as I said, Nanashi had the best chakra control I have ever seen to this day. Her participation assured things had a better chance of working. So, she added her power to the Fourth's and took the Kyubi's place inside the demon."

She turned to look at him with huge pleading eyes. "You have to believe me when I say they didn't want to. Either of them would have been thrilled to be able to take your place and have the demon sealed inside them. They thought that no harm would come from the fact that you had it sealed inside you; you would be a hero, the savior of Leaf. You would grow up happy and healthy, knowing everything. Everything just got so messed up. Nanashi sent me away to study with the Kizu Clan before she died and Kakashi apparently kept quiet from some reason."

Naruto refused to look at her. "So if there hadn't been a Kyubi, I would have both of my parents, no demon sealed inside me and I would be the Hokage's son." It would have been the perfect like. He couldn't have dreamt up a better life from himself if he had tried. And it had almost happened.

She shook her head. "You can't live you're life like that Naruto, questioning what if. If Nanashi hadn't been in the right place at the right time I would be dead. If we hadn't been in that spot in the Leaf library on that day, your parents never would have met. It there hadn't been a way they might have made things public." She laughed ironically and smoother her braids back from her face. "Hell, if the Kyubi hadn't come, I really would have been your Onee."

There was a long silence. Sora was trying to gage Naruto's reaction, but his face was almost perfectly blank, eyes staring down at the stairs.

Finally she looked away. "I, I understand if you don't want to stay here anymore. After I kept this from you for so many months...I know it's hard to trust me."

He still didn't look at her and his voice had a strangely detached tone. "Why'd you do it? Why didn't you tell me?"

She sighed. "I had always figured that after I was sent away, Kakashi had told others what had happened and that you had been put into a foster home or something. When I was thirteen and I started following Obaa-chan around I asked about you, she didn't know anything. I figured that they had kept it in the line: that you, Kakashi, Jiraiya and the Third all knew. It wasn't until I went back to Leaf at Obaa-chan's request that I realized that you didn't know.

"I probably should have told you right when I met you but...I just couldn't get myself to and the more I saw you the more I was reminded of the two of them. Even if I hadn't known who you were, there's no way I could have missed that you were theirs."

Tears started to well up in her eyes and spill over onto her cheeks.

"And I just LEFT you there. I knew what Leaf was like. I knew they were prejudice bastards; I had witnessed that first hand. I knew you had that fox sealed inside you. I should have realized that something was wrong when Obaa-chan didn't know who you were. But...I didn't want to go back, remember everything, it was just too hard. So I let myself think Kakashi would handle all of it. That you were growing up happy and healthy as a little Leaf ninja and I should just leave you be.

She tried to sniff back her tears and regain control. "Had I actually realized how they were treating you I would have come and gotten you as soon as I was old enough. But I pushed it to the back of my brain and didn't think about it. So when I saw you again, everything came rushing back and all I could think about was that I had abandoned their son and...God I just felt so guilty! And angry at myself and I just couldn't tell you." She had lost it again.

He glared up at her. "That's a stupid reason."

She let out a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. "I know it's stupid. Guess I am."

She stood up. "In any case, Obaa-chan asked me to protect you from Itachi and I agreed to take you for three years but...but if you hate me, and I can't say I blame you, and you don't want to be here anymore...I'll figure something out.

She tried to wipe the remaining tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry, Naruto." She turned and went back into the house.

She closed the door behind her and leaned up against it for a moment. Then she burst into fresh tears. She ran across the living room and up the stairs to her room.

Standing in the doorway to the kitchen, Hinata stared at the place Sora had just been. She had called out her name, but there had been no response. Onee-chan must not have been able to hear. Walking to the window she pulled on the cord to raise the rice paper shade. She could see Naruto sitting on the steps, knees up, face buried in his arms.

She looked back up to the doorway to the second floor. Then she made up her mind and headed out the front door.

He was still sitting hunched over just like she had seen from the window, but now she could see that his shoulders were shaking. Quietly she knelt behind and above him on the landing and placed both of her palms gently but firmly on his back. "Naruto-kun..."

He turned around to look up at her and her breath caught in her throat. He looked utterly and totally lost. It looked completely out of place to see such an expression on his face; it nearly broke her heart. His eyes were halfway filled with tears and there was still enough to run streaks down his face. "Hi-Hina-chan, I..." He stopped, choking on the words.

Motherly instinct overwhelmed Hinata's nerves. She moved her hands to his cheeks to cradle his face, palms pressed against his whisker marks. "Naruto-kun, what's wrong?"

He looked into her eyes as he tried to choke back the tears. He wasn't supposed to cry, not anymore, not unless he was happy. He had cried enough when he was small and he was tired of it. And he had cried about this issue enough. But as he looked at her pale eyes filled with worry and kindness it almost made him feel it was okay. She was the one who had told him he still had worth when he failed because he was a proud failure. One slip wasn't going to be the end. Maybe, with her, it was okay to slip one more time.

She'd changed, he realized. Back in Leaf she'd away seemed rather strange and skittish, always looking away when you looked directly at her, halfway hiding behind things. She still wasn't loud, but now she seemed calm as opposed to shy and tranquil as opposed to nervous. More and more he wanted to just latch on to that and hold it.

So he did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed her.

His arms went around her waist and he pulled her off of the landing and into his lap. She let out a soft 'eep' in surprise as his arms tightened around her, pulling her against him. He was still sobbing hard and she was so close his cries were almost painfully loud in her ears.

When he spoke his voice was harsh from crying. "Can I..., can I just..."

She pulled her arms out form where they were trapped between them, settled them around him and tentatively started running her hands up and down his back. "It's okay," she said, her voice small and soft, but firm. "It's okay, Naruto-kun. You can just cry it all out."

He held her even tighter, burrowing his face in the top of her shoulder and continued to cry. Hinata just held him in silence as the sun set behind the house.

She loved him. She couldn't get herself to tell him, but she loved him, more so now than when they had left almost a year ago. Before she had admired him, wanted to be like him and wanted him to admire her. Now she loved him and she realized it was different.

But even though she knew there was no one else, she still couldn't really imagine him ever truly returning her love. He was getting taller and more handsome every day. As soon as they stepped off the mountain and there were other girls around, she would once again fade into the background.

But she would still be his partner. And she intended to be the very best partner she could be. She held him tighter.

Gradually his tears began to lesson and she was faced with the reality of removing herself from his arms. She had to do it herself. She couldn't stand the idea of him asking her let go. So as his cries quieted she removed her arms from around him and slid herself off of his lap and onto the seat next to him.

He shivered at the loss of her heat. He looked down at her where she was sitting next to him. Her eyes matched his, filled with concern. For reason's he couldn't identify, he wanted to haul her back and hold her tighter, so tightly she couldn't leave again. But he shook the thought from his head as ridiculous.

"What did she do?" Hinata asked quietly.

Naruto came crashing out of his thought about Hinata and back to the real world. "She knew," he said quietly, almost whispering. "She knew who my parents were the whole time and she didn't tell me."

Hinata's eyes went wide. "Who your parents were? But I thought..."

He violently shook his head. "She knows who they were. Kakashi knew too and he never told me either."

"But, why?" she asked. Who were his parents? Were they so awful that Sora hadn't wanted to burden him? Was he ashamed of where he came from now that he knew?

Naruto dragged his fingers through his wild mop of blond hair. Guilt. That was the reason that Sora hadn't told him: she had felt guilty about leaving him there, alone in Leaf. She knew there was a chance that something bad had been going on and she had done nothing. Now she was living with the guilt of that.

But to explain that to Hinata, he was going to have to explain why all of the villagers hate him. He would have to explain about the Kyubi. And he couldn't do that. He still had to protect her from her family and if her family knew she had willingly partnered with the container of the fox demon...he didn't want to think about that. As long as she didn't know, she was safe. And he didn't have to worry about what he reaction would be.

But without telling her about the Kyubi there was no way to explain Sora's guilt. No way that he could tell the story at all. He couldn't tell her anything. And keeping her safe, even from her own family, had to come first.

"She said she just couldn't do it."

He was holding something back, she realized. There was more going on and he wasn't telling her. It hurt, but she wasn't able to do anything about it. If he didn't want to tell her, she wasn't going to push. She knew it was tough to say some things.

"Well, sometimes it's toughest to talk to those were care about, even when we need to." Like how I can't tell you I'm in love with you.

He looked down at her and smiled. Was the way he felt about telling Hinata about the Kyubi the same way that Sora had felt about telling him about his parents? "Yeah," he said.

There was a pause and then Hinata spoke up again. "Were they good people?"

Tears started to form in Naruto's eyes as he looked up into the black sky filled with stars. You could see so many more from here than from Leaf. "Yeah, they were."

She reached out to rest her hand on top of his. "You know, sometimes when I don't know what to do, I try to think about what my mother would have wanted." And you, I generally think about what you would do.

He looked down at her half smiling face. She was right. He knew what they would want him to do. Now he just had to do it.

He grinned his old grin, filling Hinata's heart with happiness. Then her turned his hand under hears to lock their fingers together. Her heart beat a little faster.

"You know what Hina-chan? You kick ass."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Sora lay on the bed in her room and stared out the window. She remembered when she found out that everything she had been living was a lie, that no one and nothing were what they really appeared. She squeezed her eyes shut. Dear god she hoped he was more in control than she had been.

"So all of my mother's family is dead?"

She looked up to see him standing the doorway. She hadn't even heard it open. She turned to sit on the edge of the bed. "That's what she told me."

"And my dad's?"

"I know he was an only child. Beyond that I'm not sure." She looked at her feet. "I'm sorry. There's not a huge family waiting for you somewhere."

He drooped at that and then perked up. "Blood Limit?"

She shook her head and he drooped again. "Man, I was really hoping for something cool like the Sharingan, or the Byakuugan." He swallowed again. "Do you know what my dad's real name was?"

She shook her head. "Nanashi went right from calling him The Fourth to calling him Sweetie. I never heard his name from her. He told me to call him Dad." She smiled slightly. "I do know Uzumaki was his family name. When they were going to adopt me I was excited because I was finally going to have one."

"You don't have a family name?"

She shook her head again. "I've never had one: my clan was killed right after I was born. When I joined Nanashi, I followed in her path and took a new name without a family one."

"Nanashi wasn't my mother's real name?"

"She took it after her family was killed to separate herself from the different groups. No name, no allegiance."

There was a long silence.

"I'm sorry. I wish I could rewind everything and do it over again."

He grinned. "Can't we?"

"I'm sorry, you lost me there."

"Well, we can't bring my Mom and Dad back, but I always wanted a brother or sister. Well I wanted a brother who would teach me cool things, but you seem manly enough." He waited for her to hit him on the head or put the silencing technique on him, but nothing happened. She just sat there next to him, staring with eyes wide and mouth slack.

"Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. You are willing to forgive me for leaving you in Leaf, never coming to visit and then when I finally do see you, not telling you about your parents until I have no choice and all you want in return is for cranky, bitchy me to be your sister?"

"Eh, Leaf wasn't that bad. Mom and Dad were going to adopt you, so I think it's what they'd want. Besides," he lowered his voice to a whisper. "You can't be worse than Hinata's family."

She continued to stare at him for a few seconds, and then burst out into a combination of tears and laughter. Of course that's what they would have wanted. It was moving forward; just like they had always done: not looking at the past except to make the future better. It seemed like Naruto had inherited that trait as well.

She snaked out an arm and pulled him into a headlock before affectionately rubbing the top of his head. "You've got yourself a deal, kid."

**Original Author's Notes**: This was the hardest chapter to write. Sorry this took so long to get out, but I took more time on it because I wanted to make sure I had it right. There is a lot of stuff going on in this chapter. As a plus, however. it's longer than general.

Someone made an excellent point about Naruto's markings. I too had always assumed that the whisker like marks on the sides of his cheeks were reflective of the fox sealed within him. If that is a case, he probably wouldn't have him on the sides of his face when he was born. But the unfortunate fact is that I'm afraid that I just can't figure out another way for him to ID himself from the picture without the marking. So hats off to you for catching that, but a suspension of disbelief on this point would be much appreciated.

Also, I'm sorry about the color thing. I got really caught up making sure all the music stuff was correct and somehow that sneaked past me and my beta.

Enjoy!


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Naruto used a shin rake as a softening blow before coming in with a roundhouse to the knee. He brought his arm up and then his elbow down into his opponent's neck before slipping back into stance. From there he dropped to the ground and swept the enemy's legs out from under him with his own. He flipped onto his hands, kicked the next guy in the face, landed once again on his feet and immediately grabbed him to pull him down into his knee. Another elbow across the face and a good solid kick to the middle and the last man was down.

He grinned. No imaginary opponent had ever been so beaten up.

He turned to look at Sora where she was standing against the wall of the courtyard.

"Good," she said simply, nodding her head.

"So I pass on this one, right?" He'd been working on these for months. They were flow drills, long series of techniques put together in imaginary fight sequences so that you could practice each move as it flowed into the next. Each new drill built off of the ones that came before it, requiring the fighter to maintain old techniques and learn new ones at the same time. They continuously got longer and harder to memorize, requiring more stamina as they increased time. You couldn't stop for breath or to think about what you needed to do next. You simply had to keep going.

Naruto had just finished number fifteen. It was well over half and hour long, requiring well over a hundred different techniques. It was also the last one you learned before the split into the two forms. Passing this one would mean that Sora was done teaching him taijutsu.

She finally cracked a smile. "You pass."

"So I get to go train with Nori-san now?"

"We'll leave by the end of the week." She smiled and pushed herself off the wall. "Good thing too, another month and we would be snowed in."

She crossed the courtyard to where her other pupil was practicing the same drill. "So... Hinata-chan, are you ready for me to take a look?"

She looked over her shoulder at them and then shook her head. "I want to go over it a few more times."

"Wanna stop and grab some lunch?" Naruto yelled.

"No, I can keep going."

"But if you start it again it'll take another half an hour before you can take a break..." he said.

"Come on Hinata, I don't think we can deny Naruto his ramen for that long." Sora added.

Hinata smiled and then joined the two of them as the headed up the stairs into the house.

"I can't believe that ya'll are already finishing up fifteen. You've been working on this stuff for what almost a year now?"

"Nine months, Nee-chan. We've been in this place for ten," Hinata supplied.

"Geeze, just that long? Sometimes it feels like ya'll have always been here."

Naruto eyed her suspiciously. "Oi, it that an insult?"

Sora grinned and reached up to ruffle Naruto's hair. "Don't worry, kid. I don't mind having you around." He made a whiney noise at having his hair played with and then tried to elbow her in the ribs. She just laughed and bumped him with her hip, sending him off balance.

Hinata smiled. Whatever the whole story behind Naruto's parentage had been, it had obviously brought the two of them closer together. It was as if they had really become a brother and sister; they still joked and insulted each other but there was an undercurrent of affection in it.

Her smile faded. Why hadn't they told her what was going on? She knew that Onee-chan had known who Naruto's parents were but beyond that, Naruto hadn't told her anything. She hadn't wanted to pry and ask him about it, but she had thought that he would tell her willingly. But instead he had remained silent for over a month.

And she still hadn't been able to figure out what had been going on with him when he had first come out of the house screaming at Sora to tell him what was going on. The black stripes down the sides of his face had changed shape and his eyes...she shuttered. His eyes had been yellow and so very, very angry.

What weren't they telling her?

She shook her head as she realized that Sora was talking. "The thing is it's amazing enough to find one person who can move at this pace, but for both of you to be able to move this fast is astounding."

"Are we farther along than you were at our age?" Naruto asked.

She smirked. "Naruto you're almost 15. When I was your age, I had already completed my Kaze training, the clan had been overturned and I was traveling with Obaa-chan. I started learning this stuff from Nanashi when I was 7.

"Nanashi taught you?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah. She was never much for any type of taijutsu, but she had learned the first ten or so of the flow drills. She was friends with the old head of the clan, which is why she sent me there after she died. She had started teaching me the drills right after I met her. I was sort of dependent on ninjutsu at the time." She laughed and shook her head. "She and the Fourth used to send Kakashi-no-baka and me off to practice the drills together, although we both knew that she was just doing it just so they could be alone. He was never very good at them and he didn't have that funky eye yet so he would sulk at-"

"You and Nanashi went to Leaf together?" Hinata said quietly. This was part of it, she realized. Part of the secret they were keeping from her.

Sora froze dead in her tracks. Slowly, turned to look at Hinata and then at Naruto and then back to Hinata. "Naruto didn't tell you?" she asked.

Hinata looked at Naruto. He was staring at the ground.

Sora closed her eyes and brought her fingers up to massage her temples. "Nanashi and I traveled through Leaf when I was younger. We knew the Fourth and Kakashi, although I haven't heard from him in almost 15 years."

"Oh," Hinata sighed. Well that must be how she knew about Naruto's parents. But how would she know when no one else did.

Sora glared at Naruto before turning back to Hinata. "Hinata-chan, would you mind going into the kitchen and starting the water and grabbing some of the vegetables? I need to have a word with your partner here." She grabbed a handful of blond hair and pulled the boy down the hall.

Hinata stared after them, listening to Naruto yell protests. She sighed and dropped her chin to her chest. What weren't they telling her? She thought that he trusted her. She thought that they were supposed to be partners; she thought that meant that he told her things. But apparently there were some pieces of information he couldn't trust her with. She sniffed loudly and wiped her eyes which were just barely starting to get moist, with the back of her hand.

But if he wasn't going to tell her, he wasn't going to tell her. All she could do was be the best partner she could. She squared her shoulders and went into the kitchen to start lunch.

Meanwhile, Sora had dragged Naruto down the hall and shoved him into one of the storage rooms before stepping in herself. Running through a set of seals she yelled "Sound seal no jutsu" before planting her hands firmly on her hips and glaring at him. Naruto watched as her chakra covered the walls, preventing the sound of their conversation from leaving the room.

"Whatcha do the seal for?" he asked.

"So I can yell at you without having to worry about Hinata hearing. YOU HAVEN'T TOLD HER YET!?" she screamed, glaring at her.

"Of course not!" he yelled back.

"OF COURSE NOT? I just found out that you haven't told your partner about the most important thing you've ever found out in your whole life and you say 'Of course not!" She closed her eyes and made herself take a deep breath. She placed one hand out in front of herself, palm flat, to keep the distance between them so that she wouldn't throttle him. "Okay, Naruto... why? Why haven't you told her yet?"

"Because as long as she doesn't know it can't hurt her!"

"As long as she doesn't know! You don't think that she knows that something is up? You don't think she knows that you and I know something and aren't telling her? She freakin' saw you go all fox like Naruto. I don't know about the Hinata that you know, Naruto, but the Hinata I know is a smart girl, and smart girls are generally able to figure out that something is wrong when their partner's eyes turn yellow!"

"Of course she knows something's up, but that doesn't mean that I can tell her!"

"WHY THE HECK NOT!?"

"Because her family is made only of suck-up, snobby bastards! They probably hate me even more than the rest of the village! And if they found out that she decided to partner train with the demon fox, I don't know what they'd do to her!" He was panting for breath, glaring at Sora.

"You are not Kyubi; it is sealed inside of you."

"DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT!?" He stopped to take a breath. "But they don't. They're already hard enough on her as it is; she doesn't need them yelling at her because she chose to partner with me. As long as she doesn't know about Kyubi, she has an escape. They can't blame her when she didn't know."

Sora shook her head. "It doesn't work that way, Naruto. She's your partner, not your ward. Facing her family is her responsibility and while you can help her, you can't make her decisions for her."

Naruto crossed his arms and glared at her. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Nori-san said that you hadn't told anyone about how my mother died, not even Yasu. She's your partner, so why didn't you tell her?"

"It's not the same thing! Yasu knew I had secrets that I wouldn't talk about just like she had hers and she trusted me to tell her the things she needed to know. She knew about the things that were going to potentially come up in combat like my bloodline-"

"Which you still haven't told us about!"

"I'm waiting for ya'll to guess!"

"Why the hell should we have to?"

"NARUTO! I am really mad right now and it is not the time to be pushing me about my blood limit unless you want to see me demonstrate it on you!"

He gulped. "Does it, umm, have anything to do with you're eyes turning purple? Cause they're doing that right now."

"I KNOW! I'm thinking of all of the things I could do to you to make you come to your senses!" Sora glared at him. Well she'd always heard that family could push your buttons like no one else. "You have to tell her."

"It's none of your business."

"None of my business?" Steam started coming out of her ears. "So then tell me, oh great and wise Naruto, what am I supposed to do if the three of us get in a fight, you have to use Kyubi chakra and she doesn't know what's going on. What's she going to do when you go all demon fox?"

"Eh? You're doing that thing again! Where you say one thing and then go off and do something else! You're a, a ...whatchamakalit." He brain had stopped functioning and he couldn't remember the word. Sora smirked at him. He growled. "You know what I mean! You're a big, stupid idiot!"

Her purple eyes flashed. Well if that was what he wanted... "You want to see my bloodlimit, Naruto? FINE!"

And suddenly, Naruto found himself in the grasp of Silence no Jutsu. And Leg Bind no Jutsu. And some other genjutsu which was making his body heat up as if he had been popped into an oven. He fell backwards, just barely catching himself with his hands, silently gasping for breath as he fanned himself with his hands.

Sora took one look at him and let out a long string of colorful curses. Naurto felt the hold of the jutsus loosen and then vanish. He shook his legs then looked up at her. She was leaning against the wall, heals of her hands pressed against her eyes.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry." She sighed and let her hands fall to her side. "I lost my temper again."

"What did you do?" he asked.

"I put a few jutsus on you. Nothing bad and I've released them all so you should be okay now." She shook her head. "But maybe I need to be reported to Child Services" she muttered.

"But you didn't do anything. No seals, no speaking, nothing." He jumped up and ran over to her. "How did you do that? Can you teach me?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Naruto think about it. What just happened?"

He furrowed his brow in thought. But then suddenly he realized what was going on and his face cleared. "Your blood limit. You don't use seals."

She smiled. "Finally. Come on, let's go find Hinata. I'll explain everything."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Unfortunately for Hinata, she was the only one who was going to eat the vegetables she had cut up. Sora had entered the kitchen and declared that if she was going to have to have this conversation, she was having chocolate ice cream for lunch. Naruto had decided that if she was going to eat ice cream for lunch, he was just going to eat ramen. Hinata sighed, feeling rather ridiculously sensible. But she couldn't think of anything she wanted for lunch that was bad for her. She sighed and picked up her tray of traditional, sensible food and went to sit at the kitchen table.

Sora took another heaping spoonful of ice cream and stuck it in her mouth. She was eating directly out of the carton, pouring extra hot fudge strait into the package.

"So, Naruto has finally guessed what my blood limit is. Wanna take a shot, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata shook her head. "I think you used it that first time when you looked at the cream I had made, but I'm not sure. But you're eyes changed color and that is generally a sign of a bloodlimit. I thought it was a scanning trait, but that doesn't fit into the umm...match you had with Naruto."

Sora grinned. Match. The girl always found the best way to talk around things. "You were on the right track. I was scanning the cream, but I was using a scanning jutsu to do so. A good one too, I'll have to have Yasu teach it to you."

Hinata's brow furled in puzzlement. "But you didn't use any..." And suddenly she realized what it was. It wasn't a question of what Sora had been doing, but how she was doing it. Or rather, how she wasn't doing it.

Sora grinned. "Bingo."

"But no seals at all, how does that..."

Sora dismissed the question with a wave of her hand. "Not 'no seals at all'. Just not seals with my hands."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

Sora chuckled. "Okay, lets start from the beginning, shall we? People use seals to mold chakra into more complicated forms, correct?"

"Yes, and?" Naurto said, trying to figure out what she was getting at.

"But sometimes people don't use seals. Hinata doesn't use seals to turn on her bloodlimit anymore. Neither of you have used seals to do henge for a long time."

"Of course not. Those are easy to do." Naruto said.

"But if you don't do the seals, how do you get the chakra to form into the right pattern?"

"I don't know. You just sort of remember how it goes."

Sora rolled her eyes. "One of these days I'm going to get you to know the technical stuff, Naruto, I swear. Hinata, you take swing at it."

Hinata looked shyly over at Naruto, not wanting to up stage him. But he looked like he was genuinely hoping that she knew the answer. She bit her lower lip and then started talking quietly. "Your mind remembers it. Like when your body remembers the way a flip or a solid kick is supposed to feel. After you do it so many times, your mind is able to remember."

"Exactly. If you use a technique a lot, you can get your mind to remember how it feels. However, you have to repeat a technique hundreds, maybe a thousand times before you can memorize it." She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "My blood limit accelerates that."

Naruto leaned in over the table. "You mean you don't have to do it so many times before you memorize it?"

She snorted as she scooped up another spoonful of ice cream. "I only have to do it once."

"NANI!" Naruto yelled, accidentally tipping over his cup of ramen.

Sora's voice was perfectly clam as she continued to eat her ice cream. "I only have to do it once. Kinda like the ability of the sharingan to store jutsus."

Hinata was astounded. "So when you were fighting with Naruto..."

"I used it to turn on the Chakra Bind before Naruto could summon anything, exactly." She grinned at the two. "It's great fun when you want to play pranks on people in public places because as long as no one knows your real eye color, they don't realize you're doing anything."

"No special conditions? Like, saying the name of the technique?" Hinata asked.

Sora shook her head. "Nope. Once I see the way the patterns are formed, I can copy them no problem. Plus, I've learned how to tweak things a bit to make sure they do what I want them to. Oh and more than one at a time."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "How many more?"

She looked up at the ceiling. "I think the most I ever managed was six."

Six? Shit. Naruto was astounded. Most jounins could only do three at once.

"Now," Sora said. "Before you start thinking this is some miracle technique, let me make sure you understand the full story. One, this drains more chakra than simply using the seals; you end up expending a lot of extra energy. Two, this doesn't mean I can just to whatever I want with chakra. I can memorize patterns, but I can't just think of what I want the end result to be and call it up. That's one of the key reason's I joined up with Yasu. The woman is the best creator of jutsu's I've ever met."

Naruto sat back in his chair. "That ROCKS! Ha, wait till the others back in Leaf get a load of how cool my Onee is!"

Hinata looked over at him. It was not the first time that he had used the word Onee to describe Sora in a way that made her think that maybe he meant something more than the original ploy. It had started right after the fight. She sighed. One more secret she couldn't figure out.

Sora grinned at Naruto's words. "Yeah it's cool." She sighed. "Pity my clan wasn't cool when they were alive."

Suddenly the joy around the table died and the empty air was filled with a heavy silence. Finally Hinata spoke. "So, every one of them is dead."

Sora leaned back and closed her eyes. "Yep. A few weeks after I was born."

"But...how do you kill a clan that's so powerful?" Naruto asked in wonder.

"You poison them," Sora said, and her voice was filled with an emotion that neither Naruto nor Hinata had ever heard before. It was hatred. Pure, unabashed hatred.

She opened her eyes to look at them intently. "A man wormed his way into my family home and put the extract of a plant called Fading Flower into our water supply. It causes people to just sort of waste away. It can take anywhere from a year to a few months, but once you have it in your system death in inevitable. The plants are rare and almost impossible to grow, but if you can figure out how, you have it made. Unless the victims are looking for it specifically it is virtually undetectable."

Motherly instinct surfaced once again in Hinata and she reached out to grab Sora's hand. It was still gripping the spoon, white knuckled. Sora looked over at her and gave a small smile. Slowly her hand began to relax.

"How did you survive?" Naruto asked quietly, head bowed.

"I was a baby. The poison doesn't get into a mother's womb or her breast milk. Everyone was dead before I was weaned." Her voice was calm, betraying no emotion. It was as if she wasn't talking about herself, wasn't talking about her family, but some almost gotten incident buried in a dusty textbook.

"That's horrible!" Hinata cried, gripping Sora's hand more firmly.

Sora gave a sad laugh and shook her head. "It's not that great of a loss, Hinata. They were some of the most ruthless people in the west. They were obsessed with gaining power for themselves through whatever means necessary. One of the key motives why I don't tell anyone about my blood limit is because I don't want myself associated with them. It is going to die with me."

"Die with you? But what about children?" Hinata asked.

Sora snorted at that. "Come on Hinata, do you think I'm really going to have kids? Do you think I'm even going to get married?" She reached over to give Hinata's hand on her's a squeeze. "Sorry hon; I'm the last in my line. But don't let it bother you."

She pushed away from the table and went to throw her empty ice cream container. Hinata and Naruto continued to stare at each other across the table in stunned silence. Both of their lunches were basically untouched, minus Naruto's knocked over ramen.

"Come on kids, let's get back to practice. Hinata's got to get through drill fifteen and then we have to pack for the trip down." The message was clear, even to Naruto: the subject of Sora's family and heritage were now closed from discussion.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"Pajamas?"

"Check."

"Toothbrush?"

"Check. Why do I have to do this?"

"Because I don't trust you not to forget anything. Scrolls Yasu wanted?"

He glared at her. "You were in charge of bringing those."

She scratched the back of her head. "Oh, yeah. Check. Kunai?"

"Check."

"Reading for the winter?"

"Why do we have to bring all these books down? They're heavy!"

"Because I refuse to have you sitting around doing nothing at night. The 100 essential skills scroll?"

"We've already mastered all the skills, why do we have to bring that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Because. How about a positive attitude?"

"That's not on the list!"

"Yes it is."

"No it's not!"

"Naruto, I wrote the list. Look towards the bottom."

"What the? What's that doing there?"

"Never question she who made the list." He glared at her. "Hmmm, well guess we can't cross that off of the list. Is that the last of it?"

"There's something here about Nanashi manuscript."

She snapped her fingers. "Oh yeah." She rummaged through her bag until she found a large book, which she tossed to him. Catching it, he started leafing through the pages. It was handwritten, crossed out and written over, corrections made in different colors of ink.

"Eh, what's this?"

"It's your mother's book." He looked up at her, startled. She shrugged. "She was never able to get it to the point she wanted, so she never tried to have it published. It's her original manuscript, so it's kind of messy, but you should be able to read it. Plus it sounds like her, so you might be able to get a feel for what she sounded like." She grinned. "She wrote most of it while she was up here pregnant with you."

Naruto ran his hand over the cover of the book reverently. It was her book in her hand. An actual link to his mother.

"In any case," Sora continued. "You've learned enough politics that you should be able to benefit from it now. Just remember that if she refers to someone named Sweetie, its your father and if there is suddenly someone else's handwriting it's your father." She paused as if thinking about something, and then shrugged. "And if it's something in your father's handwriting that's then crossed out, it something she didn't agree on. She used to tell him to write his own damn book."

Naruto laughed softly under his breath, eyes still wide and hand's still clutching the book. He looked up at her and grinned. "Arigato."

She grinned back and tousled his hair.

That was how Hinata found them; her own back packed and slung up onto her back. Once again she wondered what had happened that had caused this sudden change between the two of them.

"All packed up, Hinata?" Sora asked, moving to close her bag.

"Hai," she said quietly. Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her voice and was about to ask her what was up when Sora interrupted.

"Great. Lets go!"

"Nani? You're not going to go through the checklist with her?"

"Nope, I trust Hinata to bring everything she needs."

"But you don't trust me?"

"Hey, you're leaving even though you know you're forgetting something."

"What?"

She grinned. "Your positive attitude."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

As they emerged from the trees into the farmland, Hinata spotted a village. It was small, only about 50 buildings or so, nestled between the rolling hills. The houses were all short and squat with green tile roofs and white walls. It looked like something out of a picture postcard.

"Bucolic, isn't it?" Sora said, rolling her eyes. "I suppose after years of traveling around hell holes with me, she wanted to settle down somewhere pretty." She started walking down the hill, Naruto and Hinata following behind.

"Where exactly do they live?" Hinata asked.

"A bit out from the village. The houses you can see from here are all part of the center of town. They support the local farms, and the farmers, like Nori and Yasu, live out on their farms. People don't really go out there very often. They handle most of the work themselves and go into town fairly frequently so there is no need for anyone else to make the drive."

"What do they grow?"

"I think they're part of some sort of rice co-op?" She definitely did not sound sure. "You'll have to ask them about it. The whole farmer thing still weirds me out. I generally try to ignore it."

They reached the edge of the village, but didn't go in. "Sorry guys, it's getting late and I for one would like to be tucked away in Yasu's kitchen with a nice hot cut of tea before it gets too dark and too cold."

"Ha, first reasonable thing you've said all day!" Naruto yelled. The three moved on down the road. They walked along the road awhile until Sora suddenly turned and started walking down the rows of raised earth between the rice patties. The mud rose up over the edges of Naruto's sandals and squished between his toes.

He looked up ahead of him, at the backs of Sora and Hinata. Hinata's ponytail had slid out from underneath her jacket and now fell from her hat down her back and over her backpack. It had grown again, he realized. It fell five, maybe six inches below her shoulders now. Would she go back to wearing it short now that she could find someone who knew how to cut it? He found himself scowling at the idea. He would have to talk to her about it.

He sighed and scratched the back of his head. OK, so he had to tell her about the Kyubi. But what was that going to mean to her parents? What was it going to mean to her? And how the hell did he go about doing it anyway? He had never told anyone this; he had never wanted anyone to know. Hell, he still didn't want anyone to know! He would be perfectly content if Hinata lived her whole life thinking he was a normal human being.

Stupid demon fox ruining everything. If it wasn't for him he would be living in Leaf right now, son of the Yondaime. Then everyone would have treated him differently. Then he would have been able to be Hinata's partner without her parent's protesting. Then he wouldn't have to keep secrets.

He sighed. But if the Kyubi hadn't come, there probably wouldn't have been any partner training to do. Sora never would have traveled to the west and studied with the Kizu clan. He and Hinata would have never been sent off with her to study.

Would he have become friends with Hinata had they both stayed in the village? He didn't know. He should have realized how neat she was when they had talked before the final part of the Chuunin exam. She had been so...nice. He should have realized that she was cool.

It was sort of like the way Nee-chan had taught them to break downwards. All but the more powerful strikes could be absorbed; defenses were designed to work against those. You had to carefully insert layer after layer of chakra into your opponents shield until you had worked your way through. Somehow she had gotten into his subconscious. Sometimes when he was trying to go to sleep at night he could all he could see was her soft pale eyes in his mind.

He shook is head. What was happening to him?

"Here we are," Sora said, interrupting his thoughts. She was pointing off ahead of her and when he leaned out to look around her he could see lights in the distance.

"Finally," he muttered, as they headed towards the lights.

The exited the fields and started across a wide flat meadow in front of the house. Halfway there, they were met by a deep bark and the sound of splashing water. Sora laughed and reached down to pet the dog on the top of the head and scratch him behind his ears.

Naruto and Hinata stared. "What is that?" Naruto asked incredulously.

Sora looked up. "It's a dog. You know, of the Canis family?"

"Nani?! That's the strangest looking dog I've ever seen!" he yelled, pointing at the little brown...thing standing next to Sora. It was all disproportionate; its legs looked like it had been cut off at the knees an it's ears were huge an stuck strait up. He didn't have a tail. What sort of dog didn't have a tail?

Sora scowled at him. "It's a corgi. Yasu loves them and they only breed them in the west. I trucked this puppy hundreds of miles as a first birthday present for Miki-chan. He is not strange looking, he's cute!"

"But he has no tail!" He stopped when he realized that Hinata had picked the dog up and was scratching the little dog under his chin. "Hina-chan!"

"Isn't he too cute for words!" Hinata giggled as the dog lolled his head against her shoulder. She looked up at Sora. "What's his name?"

"Dango," she said, waling over to join Hinata in scratching the dog. "It's Miki-chan's favorite food and it was one of her first words. She used to yell it whenever she wanted some and the dog would come, hoping she would drop some. We used to call him something else, but whenever we said Dango, he would come. It just sort of stuck."

"Awe, that's so sweet!" The two of them giggled and continued to pet the dog.

Naruto sighed and rolled his eyes. Women.

"Aun' Sowa!" Miki called out from the poarch, running towards the group.

"Hey Miki-chan!" Sora reached down and tossed the little girl into the air before settling the girl onto her hip and walking towards the house. Hinata smiled. The little girl in a kimono was being carried by a woman in leather pants and enormous black jacket. It made an interesting picture.

"Aun' Sowa, Okaasa said you were goin' to live with us!"

Sora ginned. "Hai, Miki-chan, Hinata, Naruto and me will be living hear for at least the winter."

"Hinata, Naruto and I," Yasu corrected from the doorway. The sleeves of her kimono were tied back and she was drying her hands on a dishcloth. "Please don't teach my daughter your appalling grammar."

Sora ginned as she climbed the steps up to the porch. "Aw come on, Yasu. You don't want her to turn into a proper sick in the mud like you."

Yasu shrugged. "I can't say I would mind. Come on in, I have tea ready."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"HE'S WHO?!" Yasu yelled.

Sora sighed and thanked heaven that she had remembered to put another sound ward up. It was late at night and Miki, Naruto and Hinata had long ago been sent to bed, but she wasn't about to put it above either one of them to spy on her and Yasu.

The three of them were sitting around the kitchen table, glasses of sake in their hands. Sora had her stockinged feet propped up on the table and Yasu had been laying with her head against Nori's shoulder. Now however she was sitting up in her chair, staring intensely at Sora.

Sora looked back at her over the rim of her sake glass. "He's Nanashi's son."

"And you didn't tell me this why?" Yasu yelled.

Sora shrugged. "I thought he deserved to know first." She let her head loll back on her neck. "It just took me a while to get up the nerve."

Nori shook his head. "I didn't know Nanashi had a son. I don't understand how Nanashi could have a son."

"Well the three of us, Naruto and that Kakashi-no-baka are the only three who know."

"Kakashi-no-baka?" Nori asked, one eyebrow raised.

Sora waved her hand dismissively. "Naruto's teacher in the Leaf. He was also a pupil of Naruto's Father. Didn't tell Naruto a thing about who his parents were, just left it all to me. I have half a mind to go to Leaf and beat him up right now."

Yasu held up her hand. "Wait... the three of us, Naruto and Kakashi? Not Hinata?"

Sora shook her head. "Nope. He hasn't gotten the nerve up."

"But wouldn't he be happy to be able to tell her who his parent's were? Especially considering who is mother is I would have thought he would want to tell her."

She raised her glass in a toast. "Ah but you see, if he tells her that, he has to tell her the rest as well."

"There's more?"

Sora's laughter was saturated with irony. "Oh there's more. The fact that he's Nanshi's son is just the beginning. But it's his choice to tell."

"WHAT!? You mean you're not going to tell me?"

"Sorry, Yasu. I wish I could but..." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "If it was just my personal secret I'd tell you, but now I need to wait for him to be ready to tell people."

Yasu rolled her eyes. "I don't believe this." She leaned onto the table. "Look Sora, I agreed that you could keep your secrets about where exactly you came from and what exactly happened with Nanashi as long as it didn't affect what we were doing. If his secret is potentially dangerous..."

Sora sighed. "There are people after him because of this secret. But he effectively disappeared ten months ago and from what Obaa-chan's spies can gather, they decided to head into the west. Plus no one back in Leaf knows where we are: I've purposefully been keeping them in the dark just in case the message was intercepted. So literally everyone who knows where we are is in this house right now. No one comes out here in the winter and the kids know not to go into the village without transforming first. There shouldn't be any reason for the men to come through this area and if they do there shouldn't be anyone who could tell them about us."

Nori shook his head. "I don't know Sora... Why isn't Naruto in a more secure area?"

Sora smiled. "Leaf apparently has a lot on its mind right now. They've got another boy who's been pursued by the leader of Sound, Orochimaru, and they're still trying to recover from sneak attack by Hidden Sound and Hidden Sand. They've sort of got their hands full. So Obaa-chan called me."

"Without knowing that Naruto is Nanashi's son?"

"Nori and I ran across her just after we left the Kizu clan. I remembered her from Leaf, but I never told her I had been to the village." She shrugged. "There was no reason for her to ever thing that I had been. I'm good at keeping under the radar, so when she needed to keep the boy hidden, I was brought in." She snorted. "Plus I think Obaa-chan enjoyed the idea of throwing the two of us together considering we were bound to clash."

"But is this secret dangerous?"

Sora's voice was firm. "Not to you. He was hated in the village because of it, but he's never hurt anyone innocent with it and he has yet to kill anyone. He doesn't think that he can tell people and still be accepted because all the adults who know have treated him like shit. I want to tell you because I know that once you know everything you will be able to accept it. But he has to be the one to tell. I'm already putting as much pressure on him as I can to tell Hinata and once he does that we can all sit down and go over everything. But right now I need you to trust me."

"His whole village hated him? All of them?" Yasu said with wide eyes.

"All the adults know. They've been keeping it from the kids in Naruto's generation, but their hate has spread to most of the kids. He didn't even do anything; it's something that was done to him."

"And they didn't give him foster parents or anything?"

"Nope. He was raised in an orphanage until he was judged old enough to live on his own."

"How old was he?"

"Ten."

Yasu gasped. "The bastards!"

"I know! That was my reaction too!" Sora shook her head. "Between the Leaf Bastards and Kakashi-no-baka, it's a wonder that the boy turned out reasonably balanced."

Yasu smiled. "From what you're saying, seems to me like he turned out just like his mother."

Sora grinned. "Yeah, he did, didn't he?" She dropped her legs off the table and sat up. "Listen, I have one more favor to ask."

Yasu raised one eyebrow, indicating she should continue.

"Naruto thinks that his birthday is October 13th. That's the day he's always been told, which sucks because it is an official day of remembrance in the Leaf. It's the day the Kyubi attacked. No one is about to celebrate a birthday on a day of remembrance and considering he was living with the Leaf Bastards, I can pretty much guarantee that he's had crappy birthdays all his life. But fortunately for him, he ran into me who know that his real birthday is actually the 10th."

Nori smirked. "Tomorrow."

Sora grinned and pointed at him. "Bingo." She folded her arms on top of the table and leaned in. "So, who's going to help me make a cake."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Hinata stood in front of the mirror and tugged at her obi. Yasu had protested that her clothes were once again too small and lent her a kimono to wear until they were able to get her her own clothing. It felt strange to be wearing one again, after almost a year of not wearing one at all. She used to have to wear one at home when she was not training. She had two choices, plain white with the Hyuuga family seal on the back, or plain black with the Hyuuga family seal on the back.

The kimono she was wearing now was a warm peachy pink color. While her eyes still looked white with the shadow of an iris in blue, her pale skin now appeared to have soft glow to it. At home her hair had always been short so there wasn't a question of what she should do with it. Now that it was long, she wasn't sure if she should put it up or leave it down. Finally she decided to pull it into a low tail, wrapping a white ribbon around the hair at the nape of her neck. She smiled at her image in the mirror and headed downstairs for breakfast.

As she approached the top of the stairwell, she could hear Sora and Naruto laughing in the kitchen. She was only halfway down the stairs when something made her stop and listen.

"Well I figured that finding out that your birthday was not on a village wide day of mourning would be a pleasant surprise."

Hinata could hear Naruto cheer. "Woo Hoo! My birthday is October 10th, my birthday is October 10th!"

Sora laughed. "Hold on, bro. Have you told Hinata yet?"

The aforementioned girl's heart stopped. So she had been right. There was a secret they were keeping from her. Or more specifically, he was keeping from her.

"No." She could hear the pout in his voice.

Sora sighed. "Why not?"

"Because I don't know."

"Don't know what?"

"I don't know what's going to happen if I tell her."

So that was it. He didn't trust her. He didn't trust her with his secret. She felt like crying. Maybe she should have gone with her first instincts with the partner training. Maybe they shouldn't have signed up for the whole partner training thing. Obviously, he didn't think she was someone he could trust and confide in. Without that, what was the partnership, really? Once again she was less than she needed to be.

She could still here Sora's voice coming through from the kitchen. "So what are we going to tell her? We can't just move your birthday and hope that she doesn't realize it. It's exactly the kind of thing she would notice."

"Don't worry about," Naruto said. "I'll... think of something."

He was going to lie to her, she realized. He was going to lie to her in order to keep this secret that he had with Yasu.

It was too much. Too much for her to handle.

She bolted down the stairs and out the door across the rice fields. She just wanted to get away. Tears glittered down her cheeks.

Both Naruto and Sora started and the sound of the door slamming shut. They turned their heads to look out the window. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw Hinata running along the paths in the rice fields, kimono sleeves fluttering.

He looked at Sora, who looked back at him with her arms crossed and one eyebrow up. "Did you ward the room?" he asked.

"Nope."

His eyes went even wider as he stared at her.

She shook her head. "Baka."

**Original Author's Notes**: Wow you guys, thank you so much for all the great reviews! Once again I have a few things people brought up in reviews that I want to address. There are quite a few of them, so I'm putting them under subject headings. Read if you want.

Corgis: For those of you who haven't seen Cowboy BeBop, corgis are herding dogs from Wales. If you haven't seen one, you can take a look at this website for the Japan Corgi League and click on the photo gallery link.

The Fourth's name: I sidestepped giving the Fourth a given name and used Uzumaki for a reason. I would feel weird giving him a name and then finding out it's really something else. Plus, Nanashi (which means 'without name') has always been a pseudonym in my mind and I liked the pattern it formed. As for Uzumaki, there was a rumor that in one of the episodes you can see paintings of all the hokages and the Fourths has Uzumaki written underneath it. I don't speak Japanese, so I can't confirm it. But I like it enough that I am more than willing to accept that it's true.

Sora's History: Someone caught that Sora said her clan was killed when she was born, but that Hinata's father reminded her of her own (kudos to you!). Yes, that was on purpose. The man whom she refers to as her father is the one who raised her from the death of her clan to when she left with Nanashi.

Fighting styles: People keep complaining about my description of the soft hand style and all the stuff Sora said about being a mountain. I think I've addressed that fairly well in previous author's notes and don't want to discuss it again, but I will once again put out the disclaimer that, while I do have some experience in martial arts, I am by no means an expert so you'll have to cut me some slack.

Length and the Return to Leaf: This story keeps getting longer and I am not where I thought I would be by chapter 15. I originally thought 25 chapters and now it is looking more like 30, even though I a moving to fewer, longer chapters. Don't hold your breath waiting for them to go back to Leaf.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Naruto was out of the door like a shot, running as fast as he could after Hinata.

"Hina-chan, hey, wait!" he yelled, but she didn't slow down. If anything she seemed to run faster. "Damn it!" he muttered and tried to run faster.

All Hinata could think about was that she wanted to get away. Away from him, away from Sora, away from being not enough. Her tears sparkled down her cheeks. She felt as stupid and useless as her days back in Leaf.

He didn't trust her. He didn't really think she was worthy of being his partner.

She had to get away, somewhere far away. Somewhere where she could sit down and cry until everything was washed out of her. Then she would be able accept the fact that she was so...useless.

And then, of all the things that could have occurred to her, her worst nightmare happened. Hinata tripped. Her feet went flying out from under her and she tumbled back and to the side to land with a loud splat on her butt in one of the rice patties. She was stuck almost to her elbows in mud.

Naruto breathed a secret sigh of relief as he watched Hinata tumble into the water. He wasn't happy to see her fall, but if it meant that he was going to get to talk to her, he was more than willing to take the tradeoff.

However he wasn't so sure when he realized that the price of getting to talk to her included him in the water as well. The moment he hit the spot where Hinata had tripped he went careening face first into the rice patty right next to Hinata. His legs waved frantically in the air as he tried to pull his face out of the mud. When he finally managed to do so, he looked up at Hinata sitting next to him in the water. Her cheeks were still streaked with tears and she was breathing hard although he didn't know if it was from the crying or the running.

Shit. He had really messed this one up.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"SORA!" Yasu yelled.

Sora continued to peer out the window from her seat on the kitchen counter. "Yeah Yasu?"

"Sora what are you doing?"

She waved a vague hand towards the window. "I'm watching Naruto and Hinata. Kid's dug himself into one hell of a deep hole."

Yasu walked over to stand next to Sora. "I saw your eyes go purple. What are you doing to those poor kids?" She looked out the window and groaned. "Sora did you trip them?"

She never took her eyes off of the kids in the window, but she giggled a little. "Maybe."

"Sora!"

"I'm just making sure they talk. Now are you going to watch or not?"

Yasu glared at Sora and made a little humph-ing sound. Then she gracefully lifted herself up onto the counter next to Sora in order to get a better view.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto tried to wipe the mud off of his face with his hands, but he was mostly only successful at smearing it. He managed to get most of it away from his eyes, enough that he could look at her at least.

She was sitting on her bottom in the water, knees bent, and leaning back on her arms. She was looking down at the mess that had been made of the kimono Yasu had loaned her. It was soaked and probably covered with mud on the bottom from where she was sitting in the rice patty.

Where things had started to go wrong again, she wondered, as large silent tears began to roll down her cheeks. She wanted so badly to be the best partner she could to him, but she must have been deluding herself from the beginning. From the very first day when they had set out together and Naruto had gotten her to climb the tree. When he had asked her help with the floor cleaning jutsu. When he had carried her back to the library to study while Sora was gone. She had been deluding herself that they had been getting closer, becoming better friends. She had been deluding herself that maybe she could be a good partner for him that she could leave behind parts of the old Hinata and change into something better.

He had been nice to her, kind to her, good to her. But he didn't trust her. He was willing to lie to her, to tell her things just to keep her in the dark. He didn't want her to know his secrets.

Her teeth were chattering in the cold October air. The sun had just come up an hour before and had yet to warm up the sky. She was miserably cold but couldn't seem to get herself to move. She sat in the water, shivering, teeth chattering, tears streaming down her face. Dear god she was a mess.

Naruto kept opening his mouth to say something but was finding that nothing was coming out. He reached out a hand to her but then let it drop as she sobbed again. He didn't know what to do. "Hina-chan..."

She sniffed loudly and then pushed herself up to her feet before wading over to the raised pathway and stepped out of the water. Her bare feet curled in the grass; she had run out of the house so quickly she hadn't bothered to put shoes on. She reached down and started to squeeze some of the water out of the hem of her kimono in quick, panicky motions, careful not to lift it over her calves. She made small dismayed noises; she was sure Yasu would be furious at her for ruining it.

Naruto pushed himself to his feet behind her. "Hina-chan..." he repeated.

She turned to look at him over her shoulder. "N-Naruto-kun, I, I'm..." She paused, pressing her lips together and tried to squeeze some of the water out of her hair. "Go... gomen, I, I just...please just...I need...to be, to be alone."

Something was squeezing at his heart. She hadn't stuttered or repeated herself like this in months. "Hina-chan, I..."

She shook her head violently. "You don't need to tell me!" she said, louder than she intended. "It's, it's okay, whatever... s, secret you have with Sora... it's okay." She bit back another flood of tears. Her voice became very soft. "I understand."

Hope flooded Naruto's eyes. "Really Hina-chan?"

Her heart dropped further. Was he going to be that happy to be rid of her? "Ha, hai."

He was elated. She wasn't going to make him tell her! She could live with him keeping his secret. It was the best thing that could have possibly happen for him!

She swallowed as she watched his happy face. His joy was obvious and it was breaking her heart. Having to be her partner, having to work with someone who was obviously below his level, someone who was useless must have been a constant worry for him.

She wiped tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. She had to get away from him; she had to get somewhere she could calm down. "Ano, umm...I'm, I'm going to take a walk-"

"Huh? But you're soaking wet." She swallowed.

"I know but...I need to...I'm going to take a walk and then...then we can go tell Sora."

He looked at her, puzzled. "Go tell Sora what?"

Hinata fought to keep her face expressionless. "That we're not going to do the partner training anymore," she said quickly and quietly.

"NANI?!" Naruto yelled. What did she mean they weren't going to do partner training anymore? Where the hell had that come from?

She winced at the sound of his voice and backed away a step. This was what he wanted, so why was he yelling at her? "Please, I understand why you want to...I just, I just need ... need to be alone..." She had to get away. She had to get away from him to somewhere she could get herself pulled back together. She started to back away and then turned and ran.

She made it three steps before Naruto grabbed her wrist, effectively stopping her progress. Her skin seemed to burn where he touched her. She lowered her head and refused to look at him.

Things weren't normally still for Naruto. His mind was generally rapidly moving between thinking about different subjects, darting quickly back and forth, from topic to topic. But at that moment an unnatural calm had settled over him and all he could think about was the girl whose wrist he was holding onto and what she had said.

No. She couldn't have meant it. She couldn't be leaving him like everyone else.

"Hina-chan, what do you mean tell her we're not going to do the partner training anymore?" He craned his neck and tried to look around to see her, but she just turned her head away.

She was determined not to cry. She could at least be strong enough not to cry. "I...I know I'm useless and-"

"Nani?! What makes you say that?" He pulled her gently towards him with her wrist and then reached for her opposite elbow, turning her around so that she was facing him. She kept her head bowed.

"Hina-chan, what's going on?" He didn't sound angry, like he was mad at her for crying. Or frustrated because she kept doing this. Or disappointed in her because she didn't live up to expectations. He just sounded confused, like he couldn't figure out what was going on.

"You said you didn't want to partner with me and then I started crying and you felt sorry for me and then you said yes. I know that I'm stupid and, and useless and that you didn't want to be my partner in the first place, but I..."

"NANI? What do you mean I didn't want to be your partner in the first place? I said yes and then you said no and then I said no and then you said yes and then I said yes. I said yes first. And I said it twice!"

She looked up at him with eyes filled to the brim. "You don't trust me," she whispered. "I thought you did, but now...why would you want a partner you couldn't..."

Naruto's heart sank as the things she had been saying started to line up. He tightened his grip on her elbows.

"Hinata that's not right!" She winced at the tone in his voice and looked down at the ground again.

"You don't have to, to...lie to me. I understand..." She broke into fresh tears, berating herself mentally for her weakness.

Naruto stared at her. This was something he hadn't considered; this was something he didn't understand. He sighed. He hated to admit it (really, really hated to admit it) but Sora had been right: Hinata had known something was up and he should have told her sooner.

He tried again. "Hinata it's not you I don't trust. I just don't want anything to happen to you."

She was too weak to bare his secret. "I'm sorry I'm so pathetic..."

He could feel her arms tremble as she sobbed. He could hear her cries. Every sobbing sound coming from her pulled strings in his heart. She was soaked and dirty, probably freezing in the morning air. The sun was still sitting low over the hill, casting a strange glow over the rice patties. He had to get her inside, warm and calm. Then he would be able to talk to her.

He let go of her arms so he could take off his jacket, but the moment he let go she crumpled to the ground, face in her hands, sobbing. He stared at her for a moment and suddenly felt like crying himself. Instead he quickly stripped off his jacket, a hand me down from Nori, plain black with a zipper up the front. Thankfully, it hadn't gotten too wet.

He wrapped it around her and then, as it was obvious that she wasn't going to be going anywhere on her own, he picked her up. His arm went around her waist and he lifted her, before catching her behind her knees with the opposite arm.

Her eyes widened in shock as she felt herself be nestled against his chest. "Na, Naruto-kun?"

He didn't look down at her. "It's cold out here and we're both wet. Let's go in."

She stared at him for a few seconds, and then let her cheek fall against her shoulder.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"Did he just wrap her in his jacket and start carrying her towards the house?" Yasu asked, mouth hanging open.

Sora's was open even farther. "Wow. Smooth. Where's my camera?"

"I don't know. But he doesn't like her?"

"I think he's just too dense to realize he does."

Yasu ripped her eyes away from the scene in front of her and walked towards the kitchen door. "Nori!" she yelled. "Would you get Miki-chan bundled up please? We're going into town."

"What are you going to town for?" Sora asked, still watching her charges from the window.

"You wanted to bake a cake for his birthday? We need cake flour. Come on, you're coming too." She grabbed Sora by the arm and started dragged her out of the kitchen.

"Huh? What do you mean I'm coming too? Like I'm going to miss him trying to explain this to her!"

Yasu just took her coat off the hook by the door and handed the oversized black garment to her old partner. "Sora, if whatever he needs to tell her is so important that you won't tell me, it is obviously deserving of some privacy. He's going to have a hard enough time telling her without you eavesdropping."

"But-"

Naruto pushed the door open with his shoulder, still clutching Hinata close to his chest. He blinks. "Where are you going?"

"Into town for a few things. There are blankets and towels in the closet in the hall. Also tea is in the top shelf of the cabinet next to the sink," Yasu explained as she pulled a thick white wool shawl around her shoulders. Nori came down the stairs, a slightly sleepy Miki in his arms.

"All of you are going?" Naruto asked as Yasu took Miki and placed her on the front steps outside.

"No, not all of us. I'm staying here," Sora said.

"No you're not. Nori, sweetie, would you get her shoulders for me?"

"What the... Hey! Put me down!" Sora protested as Nori grabbed her underneath her arms and Yasu grabbed her feet and stared to haul her out of the house.

"Stop protesting. We can get you one of those custard thingies you like so much."

Sora stopped wiggling and stared at Yasu. "Chocolate Espresso Crème Brule? Really?"

Yasu rolled her eyes and shut the door behind her.

Naruto stared at the closed door. She was supposed to be an adult? He was startled out of his thoughts when he realized Hinata was still shivering in his arms. He quickly turned and walked down the hall, pausing to shift Hinata in his arms so he could grab a blanket and a towel out of the closet, then on into the living room.

He put her down on the rug next to fireplace and replaced his jacket with the blanket before pushing the town into her hands. "Here I'll be right back."

Heading back down the hall, he grabbed another towel and started to dry his hair. In the kitchen, he put water on to boil and started searching through all of Yasu's tea. He pulled out one container and looked at the label. Dragonwell. Was this one Hinata liked? Or was this the one that smelled like bacon? He started to go ask her and then thought better of it. He found a teapot and put the leaves in.

He dragged out a cup of ramen for himself and waited impatiently for the water to boil. He stuck in head of the door in order to look down the hall at her. She was still sitting quietly in the living room in front of the fireplace.

The kettle whistled and he quickly poured the water into the pot and his ramen cup. Holding his ramen, fork and her empty cup in one hand he grabbed the teapot in the other and carefully made his way down the hall, trying not to spill anything. He placed the food in front of her and sat down on the opposite side.

There was a long silence.

"You warm enough?" he asked.

She nodded.

"You sure? Cause there's more blankets in there."

"I'm fine," she said quietly.

There was another long silence.

Naruto was at a loss: a loss for what to say, a loss for what to do, a loss for what to think. So he did what he always did when he didn't know what to do. He pushed ahead.

"It's not that I didn't want to tell you the secret. I couldn't."

She didn't look at him. "I know. I'm stupid and useless and-"

"NO!" he cut her off. "No you're not. But when we get back to Leaf, you're going to face enough trouble for being my partner as it is. As long as you don't know this, it's not your fault. No one will blame you."

She looked up at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

He looked away. He still didn't want to tell her. "You know how everyone in the village hates me? Well there's a reason," he said quietly.

"And this secret is the reason?"

He turned back to her, willing her to understand. "Yes. Look, as long as you don't know, no one will hold you responsible for becoming my partner."

Sudden realization hit her. "You're trying to take the fall for me. You're saying that as long as I don't know this secret, when we go back home all of the consequences for becoming partners will land on you. Everyone will assume that you tricked me into becoming your partner."

"It has nothing to do with whether or not I want you as a partner. It has nothing to do with how good a ninja you are. I don't want you to get hurt."

"So you're taking the decision out of my hands."

"I'm protecting you."

She was stunned. He couldn't do that. He couldn't take the choice out of her hands. They were partners and that, she thought, had meant that they were going to make choices together. Yes, she trusted his judgment more than her own, but that didn't mean that she wanted to be left completely in the dark.

"Protecting me from what?"

He sighed and squished his eyes shut. The time had come; he wasn't going to be able to avoid it any longer. He had to tell her.

He grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it off over his head. Hinata blushed and looked away, biting her lower lip.

"Hina-chan," he said softly. She turned back to look at him shyly. He swallowed again, and she realized that he was nervous. It was an emotion she was used to seeing in herself, not in him. "Hinata, I need you to watch." Slowly he placed his hands together and began to raise his chakra.

Hinata watched in awe and fascination as the spiral began to appear around his navel, followed by small squiggly lines. It was a pattern she recognized, but not one she had expected to see.

"I don't understand," she said. "Why do you have a seal?"

He reached for his t-shirt and began to put it back on. She suddenly realized that it was the old Leaf t-shirt that he used to sleep in, black with the Leaf symbol emblazoned in bright green on the front. It had been far too big for him when they had left Leaf with Sora. Now it fit him perfectly.

He stood up, restless, and went to lean against the fireplace mantle. "This is Kyubi," he said simply. He couldn't get anymore out.

Kyubi? What on earth could he...Then very slowly, puzzle pieces she had been collecting about him for years started falling into place. Why no one had adopted him. Why everyone disliked him so intently. The fact that he had been born on the same day the Kyubi had attacked. It had the potential to explain so much: the way he had changed when he had gotten so angry at Sora. The truly amazing, almost inhuman, amount of chakra he had.

The Kyubi must have been sealed inside him.

But it was tearing him apart, she realized. Growing up in a village where everyone thought that you were a demon, having no family, would have driven most people over the edge. But she knew better than anyone that he was no demon.

The details weren't as important as making sure he was okay. Oh, she wanted them and she planned to get them, but right now she needed to make sure that he was all right.

She dropped the blanket and stood up to move behind him. He was facing the fireplace, leaning against it with his weight supported on his crossed arms. His whole body was stiff. Quietly she stepped behind him and wrapped her arms, still covered in muddy kimono sleeves, around him. She pressed her face into his back.

He couldn't believe it. He thought that she would be scared, demanding to know what the hell he meant and yet...here she was, silently telling him that everything was going to be okay. Putting her arms around him and accepting.

The world had never been brighter.

He pushed away from the wall and twisted around in her arms so that he could embrace her back. He pulled her close and bent his head to burry his face in the strands of hair that had come free from her ponytail. He started crying, but he figured it was okay. After all you were allowed to cry when you were happy and he had never been happier in his life.

"The Fourth sealed him in me when I was a baby," he said, choking on some of the words. "They couldn't kill it, but hopefully his soul will bind with mine and leave this world when I die. All the adults know, but no one our age does. I didn't even find out until I graduated from the academy. That's why everyone in the village hates me. I'm a demon. One who nearly destroyed the entire village."

"But you didn't do that. Kyubi did."

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. They still look at me like I'm the demon. And in some ways I guess I am. After all, if our chakra is mingling and our souls are binding-"

"No," she said. It was quiet but it was firm. "You're Naruto, not the Kyubi."

"But-"

"There is nothing demonic about you except how much chakra you have. You've never lost control and destroyed the village, even when they were treating you terribly."

"I think I lost control in my first mission, in Wave Country. When my team was fighting a very strong ninja, Haku, Sasuke almost lost his life, and Kyubi came...nothing happened, but still..."

"When your friends needed help. You just used the Kyubi chakra to break out. You didn't go on a random killing spree. And when you confronted Sora about the pictures, you regained control before you even fought anyone. You had the Kyubi chakra and you pushed it back down. Naruto," she pulled back and took his face in her hands. "You're stronger than the Kyubi."

He looked at the faith in her eyes and his own started to fill with water. "But the people in Leaf, they hate me for it."

"Because they don't know you. No one who knows you hates you."

"Sasuke."

She shook her head. "I don't know Sasuke, but I can't imagine he hates you."

"But when they find out? When they all find out what I am they're not going want to have anything to do with me." The tears started to fall again. "Everyone is going to go away again."

She leaned forwards and wrapped her arms around him, pulling his head down to rest on her shoulder. "You have me. You'll always have me. No matter what happens, no matter what everyone else in the village thinks of you, no matter how bad things get, I will always be here for you."

He turned his face into her and cried. She simply held him, her cheek pressed to the top of his head, her fingers running through his hair.

"When we became partners," she whispered. "You told me that before you became a gennin it was dark. There wasn't anyone who cared for you. But I had cared about you for years." She shook her head, rubbing her cheek against his hair. "I don't care who sealed what inside of you. I'm never going to let you go back into the dark again."

He pulled back to look into her eyes. "You mean it? You don't care about the Kyubi?"

She shook her head. "No," she said simply.

"And you still want to be partners?"

"Of course I do."

"And your family?"

She sighed and looked away. "That's a problem I have to face anyway. The more I read about politics, the less I like the way our clan is ran." She smiled, but it was tainted with irony. "There are going to be a lot more things for my father and me to battle about than you."

He placed his palm on her cheek and turned her face back towards him. "You don't want to do it, do you?"

She shrugged. "Someone has to change the clan for all our sakes. And as the heir to my clan, it sort of falls to me."

"But you hate arguing. You always end up refereeing between Sora and I, but I don't think I've ever seen you actually fight with anyone."

"I think that there might be some things that are worth fighting for. Besides, you did say to Neji that you would change the clan." She looked across at him shyly.

He stared at her for a moment.

Then he burst into grins and hauled her against him. "Of course we're going to change the clan! I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm destined to be Hokage! Not only that, but I'm going to be the best Hokage ever, so good that everyone will acknowledge how great I am and no one will care what is sealed inside me! And I can do anything, because I'm the best and I've got the best family and the best the best teacher and the best partner."

He drew back just enough that he could look into her eyes. "We'll just have to make it into the best village ever, right Hina-chan?"

She smiled at him. Not the shy, closed mouth smile she normally gave him. That one had always been contaminated by self doubt and nervousness. This smile was a grin of pure joy and warmth, a smile so large it wrinkled her nose and shut her eyes. "Hai, Naruto-kun."

She was just like her name implied: a patch of sunlight. More than anyone else, more than Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, Sasuke, Ero- Sennin, Obaa-chan or even Nee-chan, she pushed the darkness back.

He smiled back and held her close.

"Wait until you hear who my parents are."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"Where's my camera?" Sora whispered.

"I think you left it in your coat pocket," Yasu whispered back. The four of them had gotten home a few hours later to discover Naruto and Hinata sitting on the floor, propped up against the couch, fast asleep. Her head was tucked in the crook of his shoulder while his arm was wrapped around her waist. His head leaned down to touch hers. They were surrounded by cups of ramen and used tea things.

Yasu smiled at the pair as Sora came back with the camera. "Whatever this revelation and emotional sorting out was, it must have worn them out. Still, sleeping this deeply when there's no one around to watch your back can be dangerous."

"Eh, it'll be okay," Sora said as she started to snap pictures. "If they were awake, there would be no way I could take these pictures."

Yasu watched the couple sleep. Hinata turned onto her side to snuggle in closer to Naruto; He tightened his grasp on her waist.

One delicate white eyebrow went up. "Are you sure they're not together behind your back?"

"At the moment, no." Sora grinned. "But by the way things are looking; I don't think it's going to stay that way too much longer." .

**Original Author's Notes**: And now she knows. And she handled it very nicely, as we all knew she would. Originally I was going to write out his explanation of the whole thing, but I decided that her reaction to finding out he had the Kyubi inside him was really the only important part.

Quick word on updating. I know when I started this I was updating twice a week and now I am down to every other week. Basically, when I started this story I was sick and spending a lot of time in bed, giving me a lot of time to write. Now that I'm better, I have a lot more on my plate. I aim for one chapter a week, but sometimes I don't make it. Someone suggested that I split the chapters into two so that I could post sooner, but I unfortunately write backwards a lot of the time, so it wouldn't work. Besides, if I had cut this chapter off midway, Naruto wouldn't have gotten a chance to tell her.

Speaking of long waits for updates, the best fanfiction I have every read finally got updated after an 18 month gap. Its called Chasing the Dragon by Madame Manga and it is truely fantastic. I highly, highly, highly recomend reading it, even if you have never read the Gunsmith Cats manga. You can find it in the favorites section on my profile or at madamemanga. WARNING: THIS STORY IS RATED R FOR A REASON.

Also Courai made my week and provided the extra push needed to finish this chapter by telling me she had drawn a picture of Sora! It will hopefully been posed soon at Kitsune no Hana (silverdragonflydreams. com).

Wren


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Some people woke up from nightmares screaming, sweating, gasping for breath, but Sora never had. Even when she had been a little girl, she'd always woken up from her nightmares by simply opening her eyes. She wouldn't move, she wouldn't make a sound. She would just lay on her bed, eyes open and quietly breathe.

Even after almost 18 years, over two thirds of her life, she wasn't able to block it out.

She finally got tired of just lying there trying to go back to sleep. She slowly got out of her futon and crept towards the door, trying not to disturb Hinata who was sleeping a few feet away. Yasu and Nori only had one spare room, so she and Hinata were bunking together while Naruto crashed on the living room floor.

She crept into the bathroom where she splashed water onto her face. She stared at her eyes in the mirror. There were bags under them, making them seem even lighter than normal. She used to try to convince herself that they were really light blue, but she had to confess that they were violet. She wished they were any other color.

Thank god she was the last.

She played with the braids around her face, still all black from when Naruto had put the dye into her shampoo. She decided that her hair was making it worse. The darkness of her hair was playing up the lightness of her eyes.

Looking under the sink, she started rummaging through the bottles of dye and permanent that she had left here over the years.

It was time for a change.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Miki reached up to pull one of Sora's curls and then giggled when it bounced back into place. Her hair was freshly permed into large looping ringlets and bleached out blond with selected ringlets dyed red.

"Well you made it over a year with the braids. I think that's a record," Yasu said, setting breakfast on the table.

Sora lifted Miki above her head to set the little girl on her shoulders. Miki happily dug her fingers into Sora's hair, continuing to play with the springs. "What can I say? I got bored."

"As you always do. I just wish you didn't leave such a mess inside the bathroom."

Sora rolled her eyes. "You know I'll clean it up."

"Eh? What did you do to your hair?" Naruto asked from the doorway.

She reached up to fluff it but found she couldn't with a child on her shoulders. "I dyed it."

"Hmm," said Nori from behind Naruto. "Looks kinda like the hair you have in the picture with the dress."

"It does not! I had sausage curls then, these are spiral curls."

Yasu continued to put dishes on the table. "Plus then her hair was red and black, now it's red and blond. She looks sort of like a stained candy cane."

Miki giggled and started yelling "Candy cane!" at the top of her lungs.

Hinata peaked her head inside the door. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Sora. "You changed your hair."

Sora gritted her teeth. Why did people insist on stating the obvious? "Yes."

Hinata smiled. "I like it."

"There, now you see, this is why I like Hinata as opposed to ex-partners, annoying in-laws and bratty little brothers."

Miki leaned over Sora's head to look her in the face. "You like me, don't you Aun' Sowa?"

She smiled. "Of course I do, Miki-chan. And are we going to have so much fun today! We're going to bake cookies and we're going to sing and then we'll watch movies."

Miki pointed to the corgi jumping around Yasu's feet trying to get to the food. "Can Dango play with us?"

"Well, I would hesitate to include him in the cookie making, but he can definitely sing and watch movies with us."

Naruto grinned as he watched the scene in front of him. He hadn't had a family his whole life. And then all of a sudden he had acquired a big sister and now he had a something like an extended family. His grin widened as he watched Nori duck a wad of rice that Miki had thrown. Sora and Yasu were trying to figure out why Hinata was having strange results when she tries to use the Pattern Scan no jutsu.

He thought back over everything that had happened during the past four months. He couldn't remember being so happy. Everyone knew, even Miki- chan, and nobody cared. And it had been far simpler than he ever would have thought possible.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"So, in order to keep the Kyubi from destroying the village, the Fourth and Nanashi sealed it inside your bellybutton," Nori said, leaning back in his chair.

"Hai." They had just gone through the whole explanation: who he was, who his parents had been. He had told them about the times the Kyubi had flared and what had happened to him.

"And you are able to pull his chakra."

"Yep."

"But it's not like he takes control of you."

Sora interrupted. "It would appear that when Naruto gets very angry and starts pulling chakra, the seal weakens and Kyubi comes closer to the surface. He has tremendous amounts of chakra coursing through him."

"And his state of mind."

"The first time it happened, he thought-"

"Oi, oi I can speak for myself. When I thought that Sasuke was dead, I think I sort of lost control and broke out of Haku's jutsu. I don't remember much about it. The second time was when some guy named Orochimaru attacked us during the chuunin exam. After that, Ero-sennin taught me how to pull the chakra intentionally by demanding it from the fox. I used it once in my test with Neji and once fighting Gaara when he was attacking Sasuke and Sakura."

Sora forced herself to stop rubbing the back of her neck. "But he didn't go all funky foxy with either of those. Plus when he realized that I had been keeping his parentage a secret, he started to go all foxy but calmed himself down enough to sit and talk."

Nori and Yasu looked at each other and then back at Naruto. "So what this really means to you is that you have lots of chakra and might have problems if you get too angry."

"Yep."

"But all the times you've gotten too mad, with the exception of the photo thing, have been you defending your friends."

"Umm, hai."

"And because of this your village has decided to hate you?"

"Hai."

Yasu's blue eyes went icy cold, sending shivers down Naruto and Hinata's spines. She sat up in her chair perfectly strait and her face completely wiped free of all emotion. Suddenly they realized how she had gotten the nickname Ice Queen.

"Idiotic assholes," she bit out.

Nori reached up to rub Yasu's shoulder. "Come on, sweetheart, calm down."

She glared at her husband. A lesser man would have cringed and scurried away, but Nori just looked slightly amused. "Do you realized what could have happened?" she asked. "Do you know how many of the people Sora and I fought had stories just like that?"

"Yasu, we sort of specialized in taking out maniacs," Sora pointed out.

"Exactly," she said, turning back to Sora. "How many of those people wouldn't have ended up maniacs if they had only had a better upbringing?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

Sora shrugged. "I told you Yasu and me were mercenaries, right? Well, our so called specialty was getting rid of 'unstable elements.' Basically we would go into places where the target was unpredictable, where his values were so skewed that he was hard to manipulate. A lot of them were literally madmen."

"The klesha" Nori said, scowling.

"The what?"

Nori looked at Naruto with a somber face. "Klesha. It's a poison of the mind, although in the west it became synonymous with people who have gone dangerously mad. It happens more often than you might think. The west is a world ruled by violence. Sometimes the things you see or the way you are treated can overwhelm you."

"And they go mad?" Hinata whispered, horrified.

"Not the way you might think of it. But they aren't really human anymore. From what you described to us, Gaara is probably a klesha."

Natuto swallowed. "Haku?"

Nori shook his head. "Probably more of a potential klesha. Had he felt betrayed by his master, that he had nothing else to believe in or if Zabuza had been killed and he was left alive, it would have been easy for him to slip into kelsha."

"Naruto," Sora said. Her voice was very quiet and very serious. "Remember this for when you become Hokage. We live in times with extraordinary people. Times where people are born with the ability to do things that almost seem inhuman. But no matter what they are able to do, they are still human. And you cannot turn a human into nothing but a weapon."

"Most of the klesha we fought were people who had these extra abilities, but they were either shunned for them or trained to be nothing more than living weapons. They're dangerous and unpredictable."

"And this is what you're worried I will become?"

Yasu shook her head. "No. Sora and I were the dGra Klesha, those who took care of those who had gone mad. I know what klesha are and you aren't one of them. But the fact that you're not, despite what you have been through, is almost more extraordinary to me than the demon inside you."

Sora grinned. "Boy's got good genes."

Naruto stared at Yasu and Nori. "So you're cool with me staying here? Despite the Kyubi?"

Yasu looked at Nori. "I don't see a problem."

Nori shook his head. "I don't see a problem either." He looked at Naruto. "Do you foresee a problem with you staying here?"

Naruto continued to stare at them. Then he felt Hinata reach over and squeeze his hand. He looked over at her and she gave him a small smile. He grinned and turned back to his hosts. "No problem at all."

And that had been that.

It felt strange, but wonderful to have everything out in the open for the first time. Everyone in the house knew and no one seemed to care. It wasn't that they didn't talk about it. Yasu had immediately started looking at the form of the seal, trying to figure out exactly what Nanashi and the Forth had done, while Nori went through all the techniques he would be able to teach someone with so much chakra and Sora teased him about how all the girls were going to LOVE such a foxy man (grrrrowl!).

And Hina-chan was simply Hina-chan. Once everything was out in the open, he had realized that he had more things he needed to get off his chest. The floodgate had been opened and everything came spilling out of him. How he had found out about the Kyubi, the whispers he used to hear from adults when he would walk by. Things that he had never told anyone, things that he had tried to dismiss as unimportant, suddenly seemed crucial thing that he needed to tell her.

They ended up spending hours, side by side, sitting on the fence looking over the rice patties or inside by the fire. She had slowly started to open up more to him as well, telling him about the day Kurenai had come to explain what it meant for her to be on a gennin team and her father had said she was worthless as a Hyuuga. She had started crying again and he held her until the tears stopped.

He had wanted to keep on holding her. There were times he felt like he never wanted to let her go.

And he wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Yasu frowned. "I don't get it. You're doing everything right. Your bloodlimit should make this easier than normal. Where is the problem?"

Hinata looked at the ground. They had been trying to teach her Pattern Scan no Jutsu for weeks now. She was supposed to be able to see the patterns of chakra within jutsu's themselves. Her bloodlimit already allowed her to see the flow of chakra within a human, so being able to see the structure of a jutsu should be no problem. But instead all she was able to see was a startling and confusing garble of images.

There had to be something going on the Yasu didn't realize. Logically, everything should be working. Hinata had the seals right, she was manipulating the chakra in the correct way. There had to be another element. And the only thing that she didn't completely understand were Hinata's eyes.

"Hinata, let me scan your eyes again."

Hinata scooted over on the front steps to sit closed to Yasu, who was running through the seals to start the jutsu again. Eyes lined with silver, Yasu studied Hinata's face. "I just can't figure out what's going on. Your bloodlimit should make this easier, not impossible." Yasu sighed and ended the jutsu. "Explain to me again what you see."

Hinata ran through the seals and turned on the jutsu. Instantly, her eyes were his with a multitude of color and light. "It's almost like pen scribbles, there's so many lines. They're all over the house, the yard, you."

"What about Nori and Naruto?"

Hinata turned to look at where the two men were practicing. They were practicing sweeps, each spinning around and trying to knock the others feet out from under him. To make matters harder, Nori was making Naruto keep a Rasengan spinning in one palm the whole time. He had just mastered doing it one handed a few weeks before.

"They're both covered in small lines although the Rasengan in Naruto's hand in like a solid ball of light."

Yasu shook her head. Hinata should be able to see the individual swirls of chakra as they rotated in Naruto's hand. It was almost like the lines were blurring.

"I think it leaves a trail too," Hinata said.

Yasu looked up sharply. "What?"

"Everywhere that Naruto's Rasengan goes, it leaves a trail. It's confusing because he's moving so much, but I think I can see where he's been."

Yasu's breath caught in her throat. "Hinata look at me. Are there more lines around my eyes then the rest of my body?"

Hinata nodded. "There's also a lot around your hands." She looked up with questions in her eyes. "Why? What does it mean?"

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto swung his leg out over the ground trying to knock Nori over. Unfortunately the man seemed to ripple over the foot. He had broken down the motion to Naruto, but he had yet to master the smooth motion of the jump. Soon.

"Good, not try to switch hands on the Rasengan," Nori said, sending his foot flying towards Naruto's head. Naruto ducked and seamlessly transferred the ball of spiraling chakra from one hand to another. Nori had been drilling him endlessly on what he called the three Fs. Be fast, be fluid and follow through.

Nori swept his leg under Naruto one last time and then grinned as the boy smoothly avoided it. "All right, that's enough." Naruto collapsed on the ground panting. Turning his head he could see his water sitting fifteen or so feet away. He wondered if it was worth the effort to get up and grab it.

However, Hinata and Sora were also in his line of vision and he quickly became distracted watching them. Hinata was leaning back slightly as Yasu seemed to bombard her with questions.

"Oi, Nori!" he yelled. He jerked his chin towards the women. "What do you think is going on?"

Nori shrugged, sitting a few feet away. "Probably some new jutsu she's just figured out. That always sends her through the roof and she hasn't had much reason to make new ones since we stopped being mercs."

"Wait, you were a mercenary too?"

"Yeah, all three of us. Course, I didn't come in until the very end. We did exactly one job together before Yasu and I got married. After that, we never pulled another one."

"Really? You left it all behind, just like that?"

"Well, we had just pulled one hell of a spectacular job. Triple assassination on one of the most powerful clans in the East, practically a whole army between the three of us and the leaders. Plus they had this weird conducive technique they were using that allowed all of them to know instinctively where all other members of their team were. Made them practically invincible." He laughed and shook his head. "I'll never forget the look on Yasu's face when she figured out how to break it. We were all excited, but she was bouncing off the roof and babbling on in technical jargen that no one but her understood. I love her, but I never figure out the kick she gets out creating new jutsu."

"In any case, once that jutsu had been broken, the guards all fought like kids. We got in, killed the leader and his two cronies. The leader had this huge signature ring with a huge opal in it. I grabbed it and asked Yasu to marry me. I walked out of there with a fiancée and enough money in jewels to buy the farm."

Naruto's jaw dropped and he gaped at Nori. "You're joking!"

"It's one hundred percent true."

"But she doesn't wear a ring like that!"

"Kinda conspicuous for a farmer's wife. It's on a chain under her kimono. Sorta like a reminder of where we came from. "

Narto continued to stare at him. "You just walked out of there and became farmers?"

He shrugged. "This is what I wanted. I have my wife, I have my daughter. If I was trying to be a merc too, I couldn't have either of those."

"But people in the Leaf are shinobi and have families all the time!"

"Bet they're not taking nearly as dangerous missions as they used to in the past."

Naruto clenched his teeth. "The shinobi of the Leaf protect their families. They fight because they love those who are in the village. We don't grieve when someone falls because we know they were protecting those they loved."

Nori raised an eyebrow. "Do you really not grieve, Naruto?"

Naruto looked away.

Nori gave a sad smile. "It's not the same out here as it is where you come from. Back in Leaf, something happens to you and you know that you're family will be taken care of. There'll be others who know what they're going through. Out here, on your own as a merc, you don't have any of that. Besides, I was ready to stop. I was over thirty when I met Yasu and I had been fighting since I was old enough to walk. I was more than ready to give it up."

"I'm never going to give it up."

"Well, there are parts of it you can't. I'll never really forget what I'm able to do, even if I don't actually do it. Besides, once you're a warrior, you are always a warrior. Doesn't matter if what you're doing, part of you stays the same." He elbowed Naruto in the ribs. "And don't think that just because I'm not a merc anymore I can't protect my family. No one is ever going to hurt Yasu or Miki, no matter how much time I spend in the rice patties."

Naruto looked out over the horizon. He didn't understand how anyone who was a good as Nori could give up being a ninja to become a farmer. "You don't regret it?"

"Well there are a few things I wish I had done. I wish I'd had the change to fight alongside Yasu more. We both lived the same life, but we lived it seperatly. She can only tell me about some things, but Sora always just knows them already. I simply wasn't there. They can't explain to me what it was like the first time they went after a Klesha. I wasn't there to see what it was like for Yasu to build up an enormous arsenal of new jutsu. And I'll never quite understand what it was like when Sora started using her bloodlimit again. They can explain it to me, but I just wasn't there."

"It makes that much of a difference?"

"Just you wait. You and Hinata will probably be friends forever, no matter what happens to each of you after this."

Naruto looked over at the girl sitting on the front steps. He liked the sound of that.

Nori stood up and grinned. "Remember the electricity jutsus I was showing you last week?" Naruto nodded. "Well we're going to do a quick run-through and see how much you remember." He poked Naruto with his shoe. "Come on get up."

"Nori!" came a high pitched squeal, as Yasu bolted across the yard. She grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands and looked up at him with eyes full of childlike excitement. He staggered back a bit before finding his footing and dropping his hands to her hips.

"She can see the echoes!" she yelled, obviously intending it to stun everyone.

"Nani, nani?" said Naruto, sitting up.

"The echoes, she can see the echoes! Do you understand what this means?"

Nori shook his head. "No."

She pulled down on his shirt to bring his face close to hers. "Nori, people have been hypothesizing about the existence of chakra echoes for years and have even gone so far as to find enough data to support the theory that it is a generally accepted phenomenon. However no one has ever been able to successfully see them. Until now."

Naruto scratched his head. "I still don't get the echo part."

Yasu released Nori in order to grab Narutos arms. "Echoes are the remains of a chakra pattern that exists after used chakra passes through and area. For example, when you use the Rasengan, you constantly have to keep adding more chakra as some bits of it fly off. These bits stay where they are in the air until they gradually fade away. Understand?"

Naruto wrinkled his brow. "I think so." He turned to Hinata as Yasu went back to celebrating and jumping on her husband. "What does it look like?"

She shrugged weakly. "Like nothing makes sense. There's all sorts of crazy colors and lines. It's kinda...overwhelming."

He casually slung his arm over her shoulder. "Eh, don't worry Hinata, you'll get the hang of it."

"Sure she will!" Yasu cried out with glee. "Now that I know what's going on, we're going to fine tune it and put filters on it and try to figure out how much we can do with this thing."

She froze. "I'm going to need to head up to Sora's. I'm going to need more references." Turning, she started to run towards the house. "Sora! I need to get into your library..."

Nori shook his head. "There are some things I will never get about her." .

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto walked into the kitchen to find Sora and Miki cleaning up after dinner and singing to the radio. Electric guitar rose and fell as Sora whipped her curls around belted out the song at the top of her lungs. Miki sat on the counter giggling and clapping her hands.

Her mother was at the long rectangular kitchen table. She was muttering to herself and drawing diagrams into a notebook. She was surrounded by an odd assortment of books and scrolls, many dog eared or unrolled across the table. At the other end of the table was a stack of maps of the West.

"What are these for?" Naruto asked, headed towards the ramen cabinet.

"The maps? Well, none of the training is going to be much good if I don't give ya'll any opportunity to practice."

He looked up from filling the kettle with water. "You're thinking of taking us into the West?"

"Well, we can't really hand out in the east: we'd be too easily spotted. Itachi is probably out there looking for you all over the east. However, the problem we run into in the west is people recognizing me."

"Recognizing you?"

She shrugged. "The dGra Klesha weren't exactly an inconspicuous pair. If we get in too close to some of the bigger cities, we'll end up trouble on our hand because people will spot me."

"Can't you just use an illusion genjutsu?"

Walking over to shut off the radio, she nodded. "We'll probably use an illusion a lot of the time. However, the chances that we'll never run into anyone who'll be able to strip it away or that we'll never run into a situation where I need to use reputation is slim. If that's the case, I would rather be somewhere where the probability is low that I will run into someone whose toes I've stepped on."

"You just don't want to run into any of your ex-boyfriends," Yasu said, not looking up from her reading.

Sora nodded. "True, true. But in any case, I'm trying to figure out where we can go that won't run us into too many old acquaintances."

Naruto started stuffing ramen into his mouth as Sora lifted Miki off the counter. The little girl yawned and blinked her eyes. Sora smiled. "I think someone's sleepy."

Miki pouted and shook her head. "Uh uh. I'm not sleepy. Wanna stay up with Mama."

"Allright, baby," Yasu said reaching out to take Miki form Sora and pull her into her lap. "You just sit here with me, okay?"

Miki nodded and slumped against her mother. Yasu smiled and kept reading, one arm wrapped around her daughter.

Sora stretched and then shook her new curls. "I'm headed for bed. Miki is the best workout I've ever met."

"Night, Nee-chan."

"Night, Naruto. Tell Hinata to stop reading and go to bed for me, will ya? The girl's going to run herself into the ground."

He waved his hand and stuffed his empty ramen cup into the garbage. "All right, see you tomorrow."

He left Yasu and her books in the kitchen and headed towards Hinata and her books in the living room.

Naruto looked at Hinata and smiled. They had gone into the living room to study hours ago, bringing large stacks of books and scrolls to read. He had been sitting on the floor but she had decided to sit in the large overstuffed chair. Apparently it hadn't been a good choice; she was fast asleep.

He succumbed to the urge to kneel down in front of her chair and look at her. To his secret relief, she hadn't decided to cut her hair once she had come down from the mountain. After fourteen months away from Leaf, eight on the mountain, four at the farm, Hinata's hair had grown to just below her shoulder blades. She had taken to pulling it back into a low ponytail, except when she was training; then she twisted it up into a bun at the nape of her neck.

He smirked softly as he thought about Sakura who had always kept her hair long for Sasuke. He wondered what had made her cut it off in the middle of the chunnin exam. While at the time her explanation made sense, looking back he was fairly sure that it was more then simply time for a change. Sasuke had acted strange afterwards as well, disappearing for the full month after the first round of fights. And then there had been the thing with Itachi...

Naruto shook his head. If Itachi hadn't come after him... He didn't want to think about that now.

Instead, he continued to stare at Hinata's face. She always made him feel calmer. There was something about her that made him feel at home and accepted. Of course, that could have to do with the fact that she had simply accepted him and the Kyubi. As for home, it had long stopped being the little bachelors flat he had back in Leaf and had instead turned into Sora and Yasu's house.

He heard laughter coming from down the hall and he turned and saw Yasu and Nori standing at the foot of the steps, across from the kitchen. Nori was talking quietly to his wife while she laughed softly and shook her head, holding a sleeping Miki in her arms. He smiled and wrapped the two of them up in his arms, turning his head so that he could kiss Yasu on the temple, rocking them gently back and forth. She closed her eyes and smiled. Then he grinned and swept her off her feet as she shrieked softly and clutched Miki to her chest. She reached around to slap him on the back of the head, but he just laughed and stared to carry her up the stairs.

Naruto turned back to Hinata and as he stared at her, things started to align themselves in his brain. He always wanted to talk to her, he wanted to be near her, he never wanted to let her go. He wanted to do just what Nori always seemed to do to Yasu: make her smile, make her laugh, make her cling to him.

He didn't feel the same way about her that he felt about Sakura or even Sora. He wanted both of them to be happy, but he wanted to be the one to make Hinata happy. He wanted to personally destroy anything that made her sad and then prod her into laughter.

He didn't just want her to be his best friend or his fighting partner. He knew what that meant now and he knew that he wanted more. He wanted her to be his partner in everything. He wanted...

He brushed a bang back from her face and his breath caught in his throat. She was gorgeous. If you asked him earlier about what he thought of her looks, he would have just sort of stared blankly and then said she was pretty. He never really thought much about her looks.

But now, lying curled up in the chair, firelight playing across her face, he realized that she was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. Her dark eyelashes brushed against her pale cheek and her black hair fell in a ponytail over her shoulder. There was actually very little color in her face, yet somehow, even in still sleeping, she projected warmth.

Suddenly he had the urge to do exactly what Nori had done: to kiss her temple, look at her smile, swing her up into his arms and carry her upstairs.

And that was when the full weight of his line of thoughts hit him. His eyes widened and he pulled back slightly.

Dear gods.

He was in love with her. .

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"Itachi how do you explain that it has been well over a year since the boy left Hidden Leaf and yet you do not know where he is?"

"Other than the first original report of their appearance, no one has seen or heard of them. She probably has them hidden away from civilization somewhere. Rumors have it that she has some sort of hideaway somewhere."

"Rumors?"

"She's better known than we originally anticipated. She's Nanashi's apprentice and when you combine it with a few more odd facts about her; she makes an mysterious and intriguing figure."

"Interesting facts such as?"

"As I said she was Nanashi's apprentice, although her life before that is unknown. She appeared on the doorstop of the Kaze Clan one day and announced that Nanashi was dead and that she was sent there to train. The current head of the clan was a friend of Nanashi's and agreed to take her in, despite the face that the clan never trains outsiders. When the head family lost power, she disappeared. She reappears three years later at age 16 along with a women named Yasu."

"Yes, her partner. We were already told all of this."

Itachi shook his head. "Our... dear college understated what exactly she was. They are the dGra Klesha."

"The what?"

"DGra Klesha. It's from an old religious language used in the west. The dGra are avenging spirits. They serve higher powers to stomp out negative karma. Klesha is mental poison, generally listed as grasping, aggression, delusion, arrogance and envy. They are what must be stomped out in order for suffering to end."

One of the men snorted. "Sounds more like clergy than warriors to me."

Itachi cast him a disapproving glare. "In the past few decades klesha has come to mean people who have been completely taken over by the five poisons. The dGra Klesha were experts at killing those who were powerful but insane. Furthermore, their chosen path made them controversial figures: they seemed to only kill people who deserved it, but there was always the possibility that they would turn into something ugly. The plain fact is that these two have a legendary quality in the West. They fascinate and are feared by more people than any other women. Period."

"What do you mean, fascinate?"

"During the years they were most active, everyone knew about them. The women seem to rely highly on contrasting images. Sora was loud and prone to emotional outbursts where as her partner was referred to as the Ice Queen. One was constantly pushing the envelope the other was always the perfect lady. Sora was famous for wearing costumes that were on the fringes of acceptability while Yasu was never seen in anything but a kimono or lehenga."

"Kimono? So Yasu is from the East."

Itatchi again, shook his head. He wished these fools would quit guessing. "She is from a gang that got wiped out when she was in her early teens. She killed all the rival gang members one by one and then set out to become a mercenary. She meets Sora somehow and they become partners. Again, rumors say that Sora converted Yasu to their particular calling and after that, everything takes off for both of them. They develop a reputation despite their relative youth and become the dGra Klesha."

"How old were they?" one man asked.

"Sora was sixteen and Yasu was twenty. Now they are twenty five and twenty nine."

Another man gave him a cold glare. "As interesting as this is, I fail to see what it has to do with finding the boy."

"One of the key characteristics that made people fear them was their uncanny ability to completely disappear for months at a time. They could simply vanish, practically into thin air. In fact, while Sora occasionally has popped up on her own, she has not worked nor been seen in over four years. Rumor's have it that, as Nanashi's old apprentice, Sora knows the location of her house."

The man from the west's eyes narrowed. "The experimental house? I thought that was just a legend."

"What are you talking about?" one of the other's inquired.

"The house that Nanashi was supposed to have built was an experiment in a new type of village, one that didn't depend on aggressive violence for survival." He sneered. "She was an idealist. Thought she could build a big fancy house and put all sorts of people in it that would help her show the world what life could be like without permanent warriors. But the house was never found and eventually it was presumed to be just a rumor."

"And that is still where we are at: nothing but rumors!" another man yelled, slamming his fist into the table.

Itachi fixed him with a red glare. "What I am explaining is that there is a distinct possibility that she has him locked away somewhere. We have good enough intelligence in the East to be sure that she isn't here and it would be difficult for her to travel in the West without being recognized. When you add in the idea that she has access to somewhere suitable to keep him, it becomes one of the few logical options presented to us."

"So we have three rabbits who might be hiding in a rabbit hole somewhere, but we have no idea where this rabbit whole is, or even if they are there. They have every advantage."

"Ah but we do have one."

"Which is?"

"We have no need for the boy, at least for a while yet, since we are still preparing the rest of the plan. So we can wait."

"Wait for what?"

"Wait for the rabbits to come out of the hole."

**Original Author's Notes**: Phew! Glad to get this out.

For anyone who wonders dGra Klesha is Tibeten. However, my grammer is probably not correct. If anyone speaks Tibeten out there, please let me know.


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Naruto had never had a hard time telling Sakura that he liked her. It had always been easy to proclaim his feelings. He had told her hundreds of times that he liked her, asked her out on dozens of dates and tried everything he could think of to get her.

This was why it bugged the hell out of him that he didn't seem to be able to do any of that with Hinata.

They were sitting in a familiar position, side by side in front of the fire, leaning back against the couch with their books spread out around them. They had sat just like this dozens of times before, studying the books that Sora gave them. Everything was just the way it always was: Hinata's pot of tea sat next to her hip, while he was surrounded by empty ramen cups. She was reading a thick book on the theory of the echoes she was able to see, while he was reading accounts of some of the most famous of the West's gang wars.

He looked up at the clock on the wall. In fifteen minutes, Hinata would get up to get more tea and offer to get him another cup of ramen. He would accept and then watch her walk down the hall to the kitchen. Then he would start berating himself for not telling her how he felt about her now while they were alone and away from eavesdroppers (especially his sister). Then she would return, smile and hand him his ramen and they would go back to studying until they were exhausted.

It had been this way for weeks.

He just couldn't get himself to tell her. No matter how hard he tried. All he wanted to do was close the distance between them, hold her close just be still.

Little did he know that it was exactly was Hinata was thinking as well.

She couldn't concentrate on her book. All she could think about was that he was so close. You would think that after week after week of sitting here, next to him, after nearly a year and a half of being out here on this mission with him, she would be a little more immune to the blushes and escalating heart rate. But while she was able to ignore it better than she used to, it was still there, always lurking, ready to pop up and prevent her from doing anything at a moment's notice.

The tension between the two of them was thick and nervous. Both were going to explode if something didn't happen soon, but they thought they were the only ones who felt it.

Hinata finally turned and pointed to a sentence in her book. "Does this make sense to you?" she asked nervously.

Naruto leaned in to look over her shoulder. Spikes of blond hair brushed her ear and he bent his neck to read the writing. It sent a shiver down her spine.

"In addition to the type A echoes, characterized by large amplitudes and short periods, which result from the engagement of the jutsu, there should, theoretically, be the traces of these waves that have regressed into type B waves, the residual echoes of the echoes so to speak." He sat up and made a face. "I don't get it."

Hinata sighed. "Neither do I."

"Does this have to do with the jutsu Yasu's working on?"

She nodded. "Right now, everything I see is a big muddle. I'm apparently seeing all different kinds of echoes at once. We need to isolate it so that I only see one."

He raised his eyebrows. "And then what?"

She sighed. "I don't know. Hopefully something will happen. Right now, even if we isolate them, I don't know what we've isolated. I'm working through the theory now so that hopefully I'll be able to understand what I see."

"Oh," he said, at a loss for words.

There was a long silence.

"So what are you and Nori working on now?" she asked brightly.

He shrugged. "I finished most of the electricity jutsus, the lightning strikes, shocks, nerve attacks. He says I like the flashy techniques too much and has handed me back over to Nee-chan for jutsu training. Now I'm just doing the taijutsu with him." He grinned. "And we're doing the partner training with him, of course."

She smiled back. It was one of the best parts of coming down to live with Yasu and Nori. He had been old enough when he left the Kaze that he had done some of the partner training. She loved the hours she spent doing the partner training with Naruto. There was a whole series of exercises that she got to do with him, learning how to fight in a pair, knowing that if she came in high, he would duck low, knowing when to step to the side so that he could dart out from behind her and strike.

Then she realized that she was just sitting there, staring at him and smiling like an idiot. "Ano, I'm really glad Sora took us down off the mountain. I like Nori and Yasu." Dear gods, what a stupid thing to say. They had been living here for months now; he had to already know she liked them.

Naruto was just thankful for something he could reply to. "Yeah, yeah! They're really...nice." This was going downhill fast.

"And Miki-chan is so cute."

"Mmm-hmmm."

There was another long pause.

"Would you like some more ramen? I was going to get some more tea..."

"Yeah, ramen would be great."

She smiled and stood up, grabbing her teapot and his empty cups of ramen.

He started hitting himself in the forehead as soon as she left. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Why couldn't he tell her?

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"Uhhh, Nori-san?"

"Hai?"

Naruto shifted his weight from side to side uncomfortably. They were sitting up on the roof of the house, taking a break from training. "Ano...how did you know when you were in love with Yasu?"

Nori grinned. "The first time I saw Yasu she was sitting at the bar where I was supposed to meet up with the girls in order to talk over the job. She was quietly and with a very dignified air sipping a glass of wine while Sora waved some sort of chocolate alcohol concoction around and flirted outrageously with the man next to her. I had only occasionally seen Sora over the past eight years and in my mind she was still the thirteen year old girl I had left the Kaze with: watching her flirt with this rather unappealing character was not something I was handling well.

"I was about to go punch his light out, when I saw Yasu place a few bills on the counter for their drinks. Then she reached up and grabbed a fistful of Sora's hair, bent her over backwards to look her in the eye and said 'Your standards have reached new lows and your taste is making me nauseous. If the man we are meeting is as good as you claim he should have no trouble figuring out that we've moved.' Then she dragged Sora out of the bar by the hair."

Naruto smiled. That sounded like them. "And that's when you knew you were in love with her?"

Nori shook his head. "It's rarely possible to pinpoint these things down. But that was the moment I knew I was going to be a fool if I didn't pursue her."

Naruto swallowed. "And how did you know that she...well that she..."

"Wasn't going to slap a jutsu on me if I tried to kiss her?"

"No!" Naruto yelled. Well, maybe. Damn it, he wasn't a pervert like Ero-sennin or Kakashi-sensei!

Nori chuckled. "Well, if you don't want to kiss Hinata-"

"Who said this was about Hina-chan?" Naruto went beat red.

One black eyebrow arched. "If it isn't about her, then who is it about?"

Naruto looked at the ground, pressing his chin into his chest. "Nobody," he mumbled.

"Ah well, so this is all just hypothetical."

He grabbed onto the word like a lifeline. "Yeah, yeah. Hypothetical."

"Well, then since you are just hypothetically asking me how I knew, I suppose that I don't, hypothetically, have to tell you?"

"Huh? Wait, yes you do!" Naruto yelled, almost panicked.

Nori chuckled again. "Sorry, I couldn't resist." He grinned ruefully. "I can't tell you."

"NANI! Hey, hey, why not?"

"Remember when Sora threatened to tell you that story about the inn?"

It took a moment to remember what Nori was talking about. "You mean when she was threatening to show us pictures of Sora's ex-boyfriends?"

Nori nodded. "That was when I realized that Yasu was interested in me back. She would kill me if I told you how she told me. But she was the one who told me."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "And now she doesn't want anyone to know?"

He chuckled. "Well, it wasn't exactly the...smoothest declaration of affection. It ended up being rather embarrassing to her. But in the end, look where it got us."

Naruto looked out over the farm. Suddenly he spotted Hinata and Miki out in yard. Hinata was wearing one of Yasu's old leneghas, the traditional dress for unmarried women in the West. It had taken quite a bit of cajoling on Sora's part to get her into it, insisting that she was probably going to have to wear one when she got to the West anyway. Hinata was not thrilled with the large gap between the top of the skirt and the bottom of the top, even with the scarf tucked into the skirt and thrown crosswise across her shoulder. She was kneeling in front of Miki, trying to teach her a clapping game.

She looked beautiful.

He buried his nose into arms. "I don't even know what kind of guy's she likes," he mumbled.

Nori bit his tongue to keep from saying that he thought this was all hypothetical.

"She seems to like you. The question is whether or not she'd like you to kiss her."

"Hey! I told you that's not what this is about!" It really wasn't. Mostly.

Nori shook his head. The boy was so stubborn. "Naruto, everything is a risk. You just have to ask yourself in what situation you are risking more, telling her or not. How much are you going to lose if you don't tell her? What are you going to do if she goes after someone else and you never even tell her how you feel?"

Naruto swallowed. The idea of her with someone else cut him to the core.

He couldn't lose her. He had to tell her.

But what if that was what would drive her away?

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"He's figured it out."

"Figured what out?"

"That he loves her."

"How the hell do you know that?"

Yasu arched an eyebrow. "I can tell."

Sora rolled her eyes. "Oh sure, you can just see it when you look at him."

"I'm a married woman. We are wise in the ways of love."

"Yeah, right. Wise in the ways of love, the Ice Queen." Sora popped another chocolate in her mouth and went back to looking at the map she had spread out on top of the kitchen table.

Yasu continued to stir the light batter she was mixing in a large ceramic bowl. "Be quiet. Think about the way he looks at her. Think about how he's been talking around her recently."

"He's been sounding like an idiot."

"Exactly! He's nervous."

"Oh dear lord! Why should he being in love with her suddenly make her hard to talk to?" She popped in another chocolate.

Yasu put the bowl down and moved to the stovetop. "Spoken like someone who had truly never been in love."

"Nor do I wish to be. It's a pointless exercise for me."

"Sora..."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But there are ways,-"

"I said I don't want to talk about it. We are now changing the topic. Which do you think is worse on a trip, two teenagers in love who know they love each other or two teenagers in love who won't tell each other?"

"If it's number one, we'll suffer that glow that all new relationships give. Number two, that is, if they haven't figured out they're in love yet, they'll keep coming for you, me and my husband for advice on how the other one feels."

Sora stuck out her tongue and made a face. "Eewww. OK so what is the quickest way to push them together?"

"We could lock them in room together."

"We've already done that to them. Come on be creative."

"We could send them out on a mission together." Yasu started dropping globs of dough in a pan of hot oil, frying them up before removing the little balls and dropping them on a rack.

Sora rolled her eyes. "They're already on a mission together! Maybe I should just tell them they like each other and leave them to sort it out for themselves."

"No! Where's the romance in that?"

"Who cares about romance? I just want them to get together already before we go out on this damn trip!"

"Don't worry, we'll figure out something. Speaking of the trip, have you decided where you're going?"

Sora shook her head, and then used her finger to trace out the route she was planning on taking. "We're going to cross the mountains and cut south down into some of the smaller towns. You and I never really hung out there, but our reputation should have traveled enough if I need to use it."

Yasu marched over and jammed her finger into a town Sora would rather forget. "Sora we didn't travel there for a reason. You're going to be cutting it awfully close to Kaze territory..."

Sora waved her finger away. "I know, I know but I can't figure out a better way to go. There are a lot of people I don't want to run into."

Yasu glared at her. "I think running into one of your ex-boyfriends is a little less threatening then running into the clan you left after a revolution!"

Sora sighed and rested her head in her hands. "It's not the ex-boyfriends. I don't want to take the kids to places we really worked. Places we used to be feared. I would be perfectly happy if Naruto and Hinata never really got exposed to how people thought of us."

Yasu reached down and placed her hand over Sora's. "Are you regretting it? The dGra Klesha?"

Sora shook Yasu's hand off and leaned back in her chair. She sighed and shook her head. "We're fighters, Yasu. Even if you're a farmer and I'm just sort of wandering around, training these two, we're still fighters. Life made us this way and we can't go back. It was a skill and we were damn good. We took the life fate offered us and tried to go about it in the best way possible, killing those who needed to be killed, steeling from the rich. And in the end, we gave it up. It's still part of us, though, waiting just beneath the surface. You know it, and I know it, and we ignore it as best we can.'

She looked off into the distance and ran her hand through her hair. "But Naruto...he doesn't have it. Oh he's a fighter all right, no question about that. But not in the same way we are. He fights for something. Every time he fights it's for something. Even that pathetic village that makes him suffer in that way." She looked down at the floor. "And somehow, when I watch him, I don't want him to see the way I fought. I don't want him to find out."

"Sora." Yasu waited for her old partner to look up. "I know. I wouldn't want Miki-chan to find out either." She laughed. "Dear lord, what softies we've become. Me with my husband and daughter and you with your brother, both of us trying to keep secret a reputation it took us years to build. Had you told me this was the way it was going to turn out, I never would have believed you."

"Life is a funny little thing. Remember the time that man said he had a vision from a Buddha, telling him that he was supposed to marry both of us in order to-"

They both realized what was going to happen a second before it happened. They had just enough time to dive beneath the table before Naruto came crashing through the window.

He barreled through, shoulder first, protecting the back of neck with his arm. He flew over the sink, sending pieces of glass flying everywhere. The table slid up against the wall as he smash into the table.

The kitchen was silent for a few moments as the shards of glass settled to the floor and Naruto breathed hard. A barely heard "Ouch" could be heard from him. Slowly Yasu and Sora looked out from under the table.

Nori poked his head through the now broken window. "Whoops. Sorry about that."

Yasu stood up and pulled herself up to her full height. Her eyes narrowed. "You broke the window."

Nori reached up and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, well things got kinda rowdy."

One eyebrow arched dangerously high. "Things got kinda rowdy and you broke my window?"

Sora touched Naruto's shoulder. "You okay kid? Don't move. We need to get the glass away from your face first." She looked over at Yasu. "Do you have a feather duster?"

"Second hall closet. You broke my window."

"Hey, what about the boy. Aren't you worried about him?" Nori asked.

"He's got Kyubi in him. He's going to be fine. What you are going to be is the question."

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata's appeared beside Nori, Miki in her arms. "What happened?"

"Well, we started working on some of the push kicks and I landed one."

"He broke my window."

Hinata's eyes were wide with worry. "Are you okay, Naruto?"

"Hold on he can't move yet. We need to get the glass off his face."

Hinata pushed Miki into Nori arms and ran to the front door, grabbing the feather duster our of Sora's hand as she came down the hall. She entered the kitchen and carefully stepped over the glass. Sliding her hand into his hair, she lifted his head and gently started brushing the glass away from his face.

Sora leaned against the doorjamb. "You haven't said anything since you came through the window. You're worrying me."

Naruto scrunched up his nose as the feathers swept across his face. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'm just trying not to get cut."

"You got an awful cut from on your arm anyway." Hinata breathed in sharply as she looked at the deep cut on Naruto's upper arm. "We're going to have to bandage it up. I'll go get the first aid kit.

"Huh, I don't need a fist aid kit." But Hinata was already headed for the kitchen cabinet. "Hina-chan, I'll be fine..."

"I need to clean it out and then stitch it up."

"Don't do it in here," Yasu said, glaring at her husband. "Someone has cleaning up to do."

"We'll go sit on the porch," Hinata said, grabbing the med kit in one hand and Naruto's wrist in the other. "Come on."

Sora smiled. "A year ago she wouldn't have don't that... Hell, a few months ago she wouldn't have done that."

"Maybe she'll actually tell him how she feels," Yasu said.

Sora snorted. "Yeah right. He's the only hope we've got."

"You're probably right." She turned back to glare at her husband. "Hand over the daughter. You have cleaning to do."

Nori sighed as he handed Miki through the window to his wife. "Oi Sora, don't you have a jutsu for this?"

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"I heal fast because of the Kyubi, you don't need to do this!"

Hinata didn't argue with him. She didn't stop bandaging up his arm either. It wasn't healing up fast enough to warrant leaving it alone in her opinion and as she was the one with the bandages, it was her opinion that mattered. He was just going to have to sit still and put up with it.

Naruto sighed. He really didn't need all of this, but he was having a hard time telling her no. Hell, now a days he was always having a hard time telling her no to anything. He closed his eyes and fought back a wince as she put a small amount of pressure on the wound, contrasting with the softness of her hand pushing up the short sleeve of his shirt.

"She can WHAT?" Sora's voice could be heard through the open window.

Naruto looked back over his shoulder to look towards where the sound was coming from. "What's she yelling about now?"

Hinata smiled softly. "Yasu is probably telling her about the new jutsu."

Naruto perked up immediately; he loved new jutsu. "Nani, nani? New jutsu?"

She laughed softly and shook her head. "Sorry, Naruto-kun. It's the one she's been working on for me."

"Huh? With the echo thing?"

She nodded. "We've managed to isolate on type of wave. There are probably more that we could eventually isolate, but for right now, we've been able to isolate and identify one."

"Really? Which ones?"

"It turns out that there are echoes that stay with a person that sort of follow them around. They are the remnants of old jutsus. We've managed to filter it so that if I engage my bloodline and then use this jutsu, all I see are those waves."

Naruto frowned. "If that's all you can see, you can't fight with it."

Hinata shook her head. "But...in a fight is not when it would be useful."

"Huh? What do you mean? When will it be useful?"

She blushed. "Well, with a lot of practice, I should be able to see the patterns in the echoes that correspond to different jutsus."

Naruto's eyes went wide as a thought occurred to him. "You mean..."

"Well, I'm going to have to have a lot of practice. I mean, there is only so much I know right now and it will take me a long time to learn enough to be able to confidently identify everything, but..." she looked up at him shyly. "I should be able to look at a person and see what jutsus they favor, what one's they used recently and what they are particularly strong at."

They sat there staring at each other, her face painted with nervousness and his struck with awe. No one said a word for a few minutes and then Naruto whopped in joy and stood up, grabbing her as he stood up. He started spinning them around in circles. "Whoohoo! Hina-chan, this is so cool!"

She clung to his shoulder as he spun her around. "Naruto-kun, your arm!"

He put her down and started to dance around, making her laugh. "All right! We're going to kick so much ass! No one is going to be able to stop us!"

She laughed and he spun around to face her. "Hey, hey! I've got an idea. Let's start training now. Yeah, yeah, I'll do the jutsu and you can watch me and learn all the ones I know. Then we can get Nori, Yasu and Nee-chan to show us all the jutsu they know, and while you're learning to recognize them, I can learn how to do them!"

She laughed again, caught up in his enthusiasm. "Slow down," she said.

"Why?" he asked, as he ran up and grabbed her by the waist. Completely forgetting about the gash in his arm, he lifted her up over his head and turned her in a wide arc. She shrieked and grabbed at his shoulders. He laughed and set her down on the ground in front of him.

And then he realized exactly what had happened, or more specifically, where they were. The light from the house illuminated the ground around them, but the darkness was edging in from the other side. His hands still rested on her waist and hers on his arms, her right land lightly grazing the bandage she had put on his arm. They were standing close, closer than they ever would have circumstances otherwise.

Eyes without pupils, eyes that were nothing but white, should have been empty. They should have appeared unseeing, like the eyes of the blind, and invited someone to slide their gaze on by. Instead, her eyes seemed to hold everything. It wasn't as if he was drawn in and caught up; drawn and caught would have implied some sort of intention on her part. It was more natural than that and he suddenly couldn't imagine anyone who wouldn't be unable to break her gaze. She was naturally captivating.

This was what dreams were made up. Here she was, not afraid, worthwhile, and able to stand beside him finally. On in this case, right in front of him. And while her nerves were going crazy, it wasn't from self-doubt. It was exactly like all of the times she had sat outside in the formal Hyuuga family garden, legs carefully tucked up under her, staring at the pond and dreamed. Dreamed of being able to run and laugh, of someone who would take her hand and run with her. Of someone who didn't ask her to be what she didn't want to be, someone who would help her be who she dreamed she could be.

And he always had the same face.

And that face was dangerously close to her own. Her nerves weren't going to take it. She had to get out, but at the same time she couldn't seem to break away.

Naruto swallowed hard. The inside of his thumbs and index fingers were brushing against her skin at the gap between her skirt and top. Her hands were still resting on the top of his arms, one on the bandage, and one on his skin.

This was it, he realized. This was the perfect time to tell her. Or at least to bring up the subject.

"Hina-chan, I-"

"Naruto-ni-chan?"

The two of them jumped back from each other and looked down at the little girl standing on the ground next to them. She stared back at them with wide eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Naruto looked at Hinata. "Ummm, yeah, yeah Miki-chan. Whatcha need?"

She grinned. "I wanted to see if you were okay."

He smiled ruefully. The kid was too cute to even be irritated with. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Miki-chan?" Hinata said. She was thankful the girl had come when she did; it was the perfect was to break of the situation. "Weren't we going to get you some ice cream?"

"Yeah!" she yelled and grabbing Hinata's hand and starting to pull her back into the house.

Naruto sighed. Why was everything always so hard?

**Original Author's Notes**: This is actually only the first half of Chapter 18. However, I just finished finals and didn't think you wanted to wait another week so that I could make the additions. The second half, which is now Chapter 19, should be out relatively soon. Bottom of Form


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

"We leave in exactly one month and there are holes we need to fill before we go," Sora said, scooping up another bite of chocolate chip pancakes.

"Holes?" Naruto asked with his mouth full.

"In your education," Sora said mouth also full. "There are a few parts we simply haven't gotten to yet that we should probably cover."

"Like what?" Hinata asked.

"Like teaching you how to summon. It's a handy still to have, but with all the work you've been doing on genjutsu, I just haven't gotten around to it."

"I'm going to learn how to summon?" Hinata asked. "Summon what?"

"Ah now you see herein lies the issue. You have a choice, whereas normally you would just summon what your line would. However, Yasu and I have rather confusing lineages anyway, so you can just choose without too much hassle."

"But if you summon in lines, why didn't Kakashi-sensei learn how to summon frogs?"

"Because deep down, your father knew that Kakashi-no-baka was an idiot and not to be trusted with such things."

"So then what do I have to decide?"

"Well, if I teach you to summon, you'll learn to summon the falcons. If Yasu teaches you, you'll get to summon what she does."

"Which is?"

Sora grinned. "Why don't you tell them Yasu?"

Yasu glared at her. "I don't know why you think this is so funny. Half the time they're more useful then those damn birds, which are so stubborn you have to fight to get them to do anything."

"True, but compared to yours..."

"What do you summon, Yasu?" Hinata asked.

Yasu sighed. "Squirrels."

There was silence for a moment. Then Naruto burst out laughing.

"HA HA HA HA! You summon SQUIRRELS! HAHAHAHA. That's the so stupid!

He stopped as he caught Yasu's icy glare, which froze his blood in his veins. "Might I remind you that you summon frogs? That seems to me to be far less useful than a squirrel. Unless you use enough chakra to get one of the big ones, all they can do is hop. Squirrels happen to make excellent scouts."

Sora chuckled. "True true, but I'll stick with something with talons."

"Even if you have to beg them to do anything?"

"I don't have to beg. It just takes are certain amount of...finesse to deal with them. And that's only for certain ones. Now, Hinata-chan, you just have to choose which one you want to summon."

"Falcons or squirrels?" she asked.

Yasu nodded. "And believe me; you want to go for the squirrels. They're very nice and helpful. Not like those argumentative creatures Sora has."

"Helpful, is a relative term. Falcons are battle able where squirrels can't to shit. Plus they carry messages."

"Squirrels can carry messages too. Plus you never use the falcons in battle because you have to argue with them before they'll do anything."

Sora glanced at Hinata and realized the girl was torn. She decided to go in for the kill. "You know, Nanashi was the one who brought me into the falcon contract and taught me how to summon. It would be neat to see the falcons and the frogs fighting side by side together again."

And that decided it. "I'm sorry Yasu, but I'm going to have to go with falcon."

Yasu elbowed Sora in the ribs. "That was a low blow."

"Whatever works. Come on, lets go get that scroll."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Hinata pricked her finger and then carefully wrote out her name in blood, before leaving her fingerprints at the bottom of the scroll.

"Good," Sora said, rolling the giant thing up. "Now, all we need is to summon a falcon big enough to take this monstrosity back to the house. Seals are Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey and Ram. Finally slam your hand down and presto, Kuchiyose no jutsu. Remember, unless you give them somewhere to perch they're going to take right off."

Hinata nodded and did as instructed.

What she got was something very small and very fluffy. The little bird looked at her and squawked.

Sora and Naruto were silent, trying to think of what in the world they could say.

"Don't worry, Hina-chan, it took me a month to stop summoning tadpoles."

"Yeah, Hinata, you just need to practice. You have more then enough-"She stopped as Hinata looked up, eyes shinning.

"Its so CUTE!" she breathed, before bending down to carefully scratch the chest feathers of the little bird, who closed his eyes in bliss. "Hellooo little guy. Aren't you the cutest thing in the world!? Oh, I'm sorry," she said as the falcon rose it's beak in indignation. "You're really very majestic. Would you like anything?"

The bird looked up at her and let out a squawk that sounded remotely like the word 'meat.'

"Sure, sure. Let's go into the house and see was Yasu has."

And with that she very carefully picked the fledgling up and carried it into the house, crooning all the way. Naruto and Sora just stood there and watched stunned.

Naruto looked at Sora. "That was weird."

"Yeah I know. Pampering a fledgling isn't exactly what I envisioned when I had her start summoning." Sora shrugged. "Well, she's got a month to figure it out."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

But a month came and went and Hinata, though now a beloved favorite among the fledgling, was not able to summon a full grown falcon.

And then, all too soon, it was time for them to leave. Bags were packed, maps rolled up and they started to make the final arrangements to leave.

Hinata looked down at the calendar. Eighteen months: they were exactly halfway through the mission. Her life had been turned completely upside down in those months. She was still basically the same person, essentially the same girl who had lived her whole life within Leaf, sleeping every night in the same room, waking up and doing the same duties every morning before her day began.

Every day feeling the same insecurities.

She sighed and picked up a small photo album she had gotten for the trip. She couldn't bring framed pictures, they would be too heavy, so instead she had bought this in the village and put in a few pictures she couldn't live without. One of her and her mother serving tea when she was three, one of her and Hanabi on her tenth birthday, and one of her and her old gennin team. Time changed everything: her mother was dead, Hanabi would be the one turning ten now and her teammates were no longer hers.

She flipped to the newer pictures, ones that had been taken on the mission. The three of them sitting on the kitchen counter at midnight, Sora grabbing Naruto in a headlock and one very special one of her and Naruto all dressed up for New Years. She ran her fingers over their smiling faces. They were standing right next to each other and you would almost be able to believe that they were a couple.

But that was never to be. She had accepted that it was just a daydream and hopefully one that she would eventually grow out of. It probably didn't matter how he felt about her anyway. While the freedom and peace she had found in this mission were wonderful, it didn't change the fact that her father would probably try to arrange a strategic marriage for her once she returned. Naruto was right; she was going to have to fight them to accept that she and Naruto were partners. She was going to have to fight them on the use of the seal and her rights as heir. At this point, Naruto would be the only person she would ever fight to marry.

She was worried he knew that he had figured out that she loved him and it was making things awkward. All of a sudden a few months back he had started acting very strange around her. Their conversations had become more strained then they had been since the very beginning. She wanted to talk to him about it, but couldn't bring herself to.

She sighed and closed the book, placing it into her pack. Looking in, she realized that she had accidentally grabbed both of the first aid kits, one of which was meant for Naruto's pack.

We'll she would have to get it to him then, wouldn't she.

Grabbing the kit, she went to look for him.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto sat on the floor of the loft, reading the book Nanashi had written. According to Sora, his parents' ongoing arguments about how a country was properly run were a mainstay of their conversation. If that was a case, reading the book was almost like listening into one of their conversations.

Most of the text was, of course, written by his mother. There were long and passionate passages about the consequences of war on a fighter and his family and the use of trade as a method of strengthening ties between countries. His mother's ideas were truly radical: she had advocated for ending the mandatory gennin level training everyone received in favor of an education that leaned more towards academics and the end of what she considered to be a war based society.

And then, written neatly in the margins were very short, but poignant remarks on why her theories were off. Almost always defending the position of Leaf, the remarks could only belong to his father.

Piecing this together with the photos and the stories, he could almost come up with a picture of what they must have been like. There was one picture of them sitting on a blue couch up at the house in the mountains. It was obviously taken by Sora as it was slightly crooked, but it somehow it made the picture cuter. His mother was sitting with her back against the armrest, legs stretched out along its length and into his father's lap. She had the book Naruto was reading in her lap just in front of a very pregnant stomach. She was making some sort of large gesture, sending the sleeves of her kimono flying.

His father was calmly sitting with his wife's legs in his lap, resting his head on his arm which was propped up on the back of the couch. He was smiling slightly, as if he was enjoying watching his wife rant and was simply going to wait until she got good and going before throwing a wench in her works. When he read the book her could almost hear them talking.

"Asking an entire village to train in the ninja arts is sending the wrong psychological message. It implies that there is no other was to resolve conflicts other than force and therefore the state of war within the village communities, both internally and inter-village, is an ever present state. Therefore, mandatory military training within the villages should be removed to favor a form of education or training that is more compatible with other potential fields of work."

"However, ninja training unites the village, keeps us strong and makes every individual feel as if they have the power to control their own destiny. Plus, conflict is an ever present part of our lives. Remember, villages were carved out of war to give us some peace, but that doesn't mean we can wish away the war."

"What are you reading?"

Naruto was startled out of his daydream, as he looked up to find Hinata standing by the ladder. "It's a book my mother wrote, or at least started to write. She didn't get to finish it."

She moved to sit on the floor across from him. "About politics?"

Naruto nodded. "She thought so much about how to make the villages work. She wanted people to stop being fighters all the time and start having other lives too. It's strange though; I can tell where my father wrote in because he disagreed with her. At times I almost feel as though I can hear them in my head, debating back and forth." He'd have to remember to show her the pictures sometimes; he had only brought a few with him, most of them were still up at the house.

She smiled and brought he knees up to her chest. "Did they debate a lot?"

"According to Nee-chan, they did it all the time. It was one of the things that bound them together."

"Arguing bound them together?"

He shrugged. "I'll have to ask Kakashi-sensei about it when we get back."

A heavy silence weighed down on the room. "I wonder why he didn't tell me," Naruto whispered.

Hinata reached out and put her hand over his. "I'm sure he had a good reason. You'll just have to wait until we get back to find out." She smiled. "Onee-chan has certainly passed judgment though."

Naruto managed a half smile. "I get the feeling that she never really liked 'Kakashi-no-baka' that much."

"Really? I got the opposite impression."

"What do you mean?"

Hinata giggled slightly. "I think she might have liked him a little too much."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "You mean she had a crush on him? No way!"

She leaned back and rested her head against the window frame. "Handsome thirteen year old preparing to test for ANBU membership, the only male even remotely her age that she gets to see on a regular basis, and the protégé of her teacher's husband? It sounds like the perfect opportunity for crush."

"Really?" Naruto asked incredulously. "THAT'S the perfect opportunity for a crush?"

"Well, it just seems like in those circumstances she might have been interested. She was ten after all."

There was another long silence. Naruto felt a tightening within his chest.

"You haven't seen a boy close to your age in months, other than me," Naruto said.

Oh no, this was not the direction that she had expected or wanted the conversation to go. Hinata looked up at him, questioningly.

"I just wondered what the chances were that you would develop a crush on me."

She swallowed hard and carefully worded her answer, trying hard to keep the emotion out of her voice. "Don't worry, Naruto-kun. I won't develop a crush on you just because we're out here alone." She had already had a crush on him back in the Leaf where there were dozens of other boys her age.

His heart fell. He should have known that she wasn't going to like him back. He would never be able to get a break like that.

But then he started thinking about his parents and their debates. His heart lightened again. Maybe there was still a chance. Maybe he could convince her. He jumped to his feet and started to pace back and forth in front of her.

"Hina-chan, we're going to do a lot of cool things, right?"

She watched him walk back and forth. "I'm not sure what you-"

"I mean we're going to go back to Leaf and kick everyone's ass, right? And we'll make chuunin and then jounin. And then I'll become Hokage and you'll become the head of your clan, and we'll change things. We'll change the Hyuuga, and then we'll change the village. We'll make Leaf the best place in the whole world. Everyone will acknowledge us and the strength of the Leaf. It'll be great, right?"

She smiled. His dream was starting to change slightly. No, change was the wrong word. Mature was better. "Hai, Naruto-kun."

"And we'll do it together right?"

Her smile widened. "Hai."

He walked over to her and leaned down. "What if I told you that I had thought of a way to make it even cooler?"

"Even cooler?"

"Yeah, yeah! See, I was thinking about my parents and how they were going to do the same thing together. Well they weren't planning on changing the Hyuuga specifically, but in general they were planning on doing things very similar to what we're doing."

Her heart clenched. "Your parents?"

"Yeah, yeah! And then I started thinking that you and I were a lot like my parents, at least in some way. Obviously there are some differences. But still, I was thinking about us and I was thinking about how cool you were and I started thinking that maybe, we should be even more like them."

Her hands were clutched tightly in her lap. "Na...Naruto-kun, what are you saying?"

"Well, I was thinking that maybe you should be my girlfriend."

"I should be your girlfriend?"

He held his hands out in front of him, worried that he had misspoken and said the wrong thing. "No, wait that's not what I meant! I was wondering if... you would be my girlfriend..."

Her eyes were wide and her voice trembled. "You think we're a lot like your parents and therefore you want to know if I'll be your girlfriend?"

"Well, that... and... I think I might be... in love with you." He reached back to scratch the back of his head. "I probably should have started with that, shouldn't I?"

She started crying. She couldn't help herself, it was just too much. It was a daydream that she thought never would come true.

Naruto had started to panic. Oh gods, she was crying. "Hina-chan, don't cry. I'm sorry I... I di..."

She launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his middle and sending him back a pace. "Don't be sorry. Please, don't be sorry."

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her more tightly to him. "Why are you crying?"

"Because I'm happy."

He brightened. "Does that mean that you're willing to try it? Being my girlfriend, I mean."

She nodded. "Yeah."

"So then, you think you might love me too?"

He could feel her shake her head against his chest. "I don't think. I know I love you."

"Ehhh? Really? Wait, have you thought about this before?"

She half laughed. "You could say that." She pulled back to look at his face, and then reached up with one hand to cup it. "Naruto, I can't remember a time when I wasn't."

His eyes widened. "You mean, back in Leaf?"

She nodded.

"When no one would acknowledge me, you..." He let his voice trail off.

She nodded again. "It never occurred to me that my acknowledgement would mean anything to you."

He crushed her to him again, pressing her face down into his shoulder, holding her tightly. His eyes started to water. "It means more from you than anyone else."

She burst into fresh tears again, sobbing into his shirt. He turned his head to bury his face in her hair. This was it, this was right. The rain poured outside and tears were flowing inside, but he had never been so warm.

"Hina-chan?"

She hiccupped. "Hai?"

"I don't want you to think that I'm a pervert or anything, but...would you hit me if I tried to kiss you?" he asked, rushing out the last part of the question.

Her heart stopped and she sucked in her breath. It wasn't how she had imagined he would ask her but...she gave him a shaky smile and shook her head, cheeks bright red.

The realization suddenly struck Naruto that he had absolutely no idea how someone was actually supposed to kiss a girl. Oh, he had seen people in the village do it and heard some very strange rumors about using one's tongue, but he had never actually had the process explained to him.

But he wasn't about to back down now; he would just have to improvise.

Slowly, he bent his head, turning it to one side and placed his lips against hers.

They were very, very soft. There was no movement, except for the fact that that they were both shaking ever so slightly. They just stood there, eyes screwed tightly shut, feeling each others lips against theirs. It was amazingly simple, just to rest there, wrapped up in each other.

He pulled back, his lips tugging hers slightly as he left. Her eyes opened to look up at him. Her face was expressionless, almost stunned for a few seconds. Then a smile started to spread across her face and she giggled, turning her head to bury her face in his shoulder, cheeks red. He laughed softly too, moving one hand up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, trying to see her better. He nuzzled his nose into her cheek, coaxing her to turn her head. When she did, he pressed his lips to hers once again, this time daring to move his lips across hers. They stayed just like that, trying to get a feel for this new action, these new sensations.

Finally, they pulled back, her head returning to his shoulder. He placed his forehead against hers. "I love you, Hina-chan," he whispered.

She blushed again, and smiled. "I love you too, Naruto-kun."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Sora and Yasu knew what just happened the instant they walked into the kitchen. Naruto and Hinata were both blushing and practically glowing: there could be absolutely no doubt as to what had been going on.

Sora smirked. "You two got together," she said, and it was a statement.

Naruto swallowed. He hadn't thought about how Sora was going to react to him and Hinata getting together. "Yeah, so?"

Sora grinned, but there was an edge to it. "Sit down," she said, gesturing at the table across from her.

They both nervously moved to sit down across from her. Sora folded up the newspaper she was reading and set it down on the table. She cleared her throat.

"Ground rules for dating. Actually there aren't that many of them. I expect you to be reasonably discrete and non-disgusting about it, but I trust that Hinata has good enough taste to keep a certain level of decorum. However, there is one issue I want to impress upon you."

She leaned in over the table. "If either of you leave my custody as anything but virgins, Tsunade and Hiashi will hunt me down. And that would be a pain in the ass. Therefore, you will both leave my custody as virgins and by virgins I mean virgins by anyone's descriptions. There will be no acts that are considered sex by some people and not by others. There will be nothing borderline, with the possibility of swinging either way. All underwear will stay on and in place at all times when you two are together, clear?"

Hinata had never been so red in her life. No one in her household had talked this...blatantly about such topics before. It had always been referred to as 'keeping herself pure.' She hadn't even started thinking about doing anything like that with Naruto.

Naruto was on his feet yelling at Sora. "Wha...What do you think I am, some sort of pervert like Kakashi-sensei and Ero-sennin? I would never do anything like that to Hina-chan!"

Sora quirked an eyebrow. "You might find that your opinion on that changes as you get older. However, for now..." She squealed and jumped across the table to grab both of them around the neck and pulled them to her. "Finally! Man I was getting tired of waiting for you two to figure it out. You made it just in time to: I really didn't want to be dealing with this on the road." She jumped off the table and headed over to the fridge. "This calls for a celebration. We should make cake or something."

"Oi, what to you mean you've been waiting?" Naruto asked.

Sora smirked at him. "Naruto you were the only person dense enough to not realize that she was interested. I realized it before we even got to the house."

"You've known since before we got here?"

Sora shook her head. "Not this house, my house."

"NANI? You mean that..." he looked at Hinata and then back at Sora. "You knew from day one."

"Of course I have. And you have been painfully slow to realize it, let me tell you. You have got to be the densest boy in the world. Oo, chocolate!" Sora hauled out a box of cocoa powder from the cabinet. "Hey, Yasu do you have in chocolate chips? We could make a Death by Chocolate Cake."

"Check in the next cabinet over. Naruto, how long ago did you figure out that you liked Hinata?"

Naruto sat miserably in the kitchen chair. He couldn't believe them. "A few months ago."

Yasu turned back to Sora. "HA! I told you so. And you doubted a married woman's instincts."

Sora rolled her eyes. "Hmph. Lucky guess."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Sora hefted her sack onto her back, tightening the straps. "Well, we're off."

Miki pouted. "Don't want you to go."

Sora chuckled softly and bent to pick up the little girl. "Don't be sad, Miki-chan. We'll be back before you know it."

"Weally?"

"Promise," she said. "There is only so much of the west I can stand."

"There is only so much of anything you can stand," Yasu laughed, taking her daughter. She reached out to hug her old friend with her free arm. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too."

Naruto stood in front of Nori, Yasu and Miki, trying to figure out what to say. He had never had to thank anyone for so much before. Something in him knew that this was the end of something, although he couldn't pin down exactly what it was. But something was telling him that once he left, things weren't going to align themselves quite this was again.

"You guys kick ass."

The pair laughed and Nori moved to hit him on the shoulder. "You're not bad yourself."

Yasu bent to kiss him on the cheek. "Remember you can come back anytime. People like us don't use blood to define family."

He blushed and rubbed his cheek, embarrassed. He'd gone so long without a family that he wasn't quite sure how to act with one.

"Well, kids, there's nothing for us to do here but stand around and get sadder. We might as well get going." Sora turned and started walking down the path.

Slowly, Naruto and Hinata turned away from the house, waving a final goodbye to the family that stood at the base of the stairs. Forcing their feet forward, they started to walk away. It was strange how quickly a place felt like home; it was almost harder to leave the farm than it had been to leave Hidden Leaf.

About halfway through the fields, Hinata stopped and looked back. She had the same feeling as Naruto. Those things weren't going to be the same again. But her feeling was colored with apprehension, as if something bad was going to happen if they left.

Doubts filled her head. Was this what they were waiting for? Were they just waiting for them to leave the shelter of their hidden life in order to swoop down and take Naruto? She bit her lower lip. Maybe this was a bad idea.

"Hina-chan?"

She turned to see Naruto standing a few yards behind her. He smiled and held out his hand. "Come on, Nee-chan's getting ahead."

She hesitated a second, then smiled and walked to slip her hand into his.

No matter what happened, they were going to put up a fight.

**Original Author's Notes**: And thus ends the second story arch. I hope that the confession scene lived up to everyone's expectations; I was really nervous about writing it.

Coming up in the next arc, lots more action, typical Naruto good heartedness and a whole lot of hair sticks.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

They climbed strait up into the mountains. Past Sora's house, and snow peaked caps, moving slowly towards the west. Sora wanted to keep to the mountains until they got closer to the south.

It felt surreal to travel this way. Day after day they trudged through the mountains, moving down the mountain range. The landscape was beautiful but unchanging, each mountain bearing a strong resemblance to the one that had come before it.

For Hinata, it seemed like an entirely different state of being. Her legs were sore and she was exhausted from climbing all day, everyday. But strangest of all, her hand was almost always tucked inside Naruto's. Sometimes she would become convinced that the pressure on her hand was just her imagination, but then she would look up and there he was, walking next to her.

Sora was obviously used to traveling alone and often didn't feel like talking. So she would walk ahead of them and they would follow behind, hand in hand, talking quietly. The declaration of their mutual affection hadn't really changed things anything as much as added another dimension. They found themselves going back over a lot of things now that everything was out in the open, his kyubi, their families, their feelings for each other, they found that things had a slightly different light to them.

"I have this strange memory change thing going on," Naruto said.

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked.

"Well," he said, stepping up onto a bolder and helping her up behind him. "I know that I didn't think much about how you looked back in Leaf, but whenever I go through memories where you're there, I get distracted by how pretty you look." He grinned. "Weird huh?"

Hinata stared up at him, not quite sure what to make of that. She was about to ask him to clarify what he meant when they heard Sora whoop for joy.

"Alright, no camping tonight! Oh I can't wait to get somewhere warm to sleep."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

Sora just grinned and pointed to a spot beyond herself. The pair moved forward and looked out along the mountains. It took them a second to find what she was pointing to, but when they did their breaths caught in their throats.

It was a building. A huge sprawling building that flowed along the side of one of the mountains. It looked slightly similar to Sora's house, except it was painted a vibrant red and white with accents of green and yellow. It was partially shrouded in mist, but you could still see the vivid colors shining through, as if the whole building was glowing.

"What is that?" Hinata breathed.

"It's Daruma Abbey."

"An abbey?" Naruto questioned.

"Yeah, you know like monks and nuns? This is where some of them live. Those who want to live away from society for one reason or another. In any case, they'll let travelers stay in the Abbey for the night provided they promise not to break the peace, so we can sleep in actual beds tonight."

"They'll let anyone in?" Hinata was amazed. It seemed like a huge security threat to her. How could the monks expect people to keep their promise.

"They're committed to bringing as many people peace and relief from suffering as possible. Fortunately for us, that's not as aggressive here as at it is in other orders. They're of the opinion that they have an almost infinite number of reincarnation to order to get everyone to reach nirvana and that by trying to press people too harshly you end up causing more harm than good. So they take an almost passive approach towards conversion."

"Are we going to stay here long?"

Sora shook her head. "Just for the night. I personally would like to get out of these damn mountains and into somewhere with some tropical weather." She sighed. "Ooo yeah, a beach and a bikini sound just about perfect right now. But for right now, we'll have to make do with monks. Come on you two," Sora said and started heading towards the abbey.

Naruto and Hinata followed behind her, tripping along the narrow path that lead down to the abbey. It took them almost two more hours to negotiate the rough terrain, but finally they reached the large wooden gates. Reaching up, Sora took the large brass knocker in both hands and banged it against the gate with a grunt.

A few minutes later, the door was opened by a women that Naruto and Hinata had to assume was a nun. She wore baggy gray pants and a matching long tunic. She was also veiled with solid black material wrapped around her head to fasten under her chin and a long silvery sheer material over that, coving her face.

Sora stepped forward and bowed to the women. "Rinpoche, my name is Sora and this is my brother Uzumaki Naruto and my apprentice Hyuung Hinata. We seek a night of rest at your abbey and pledge not to harm it or those who stay within its walls."

Suddenly the women giggled. "Sora we have heard of you and you are welcome here." She stepped aside to let them into the courtyard. "It has been years since you visited us, little sister, though the Abbot talks about it still. I'm sure the story of how you came to loose Yasu and take on these two will prove to be interesting."

They were swept off into a changing room where they were able to remove their coats and change into dry house slippers. Hinata sighed in bliss at the feeling of the heated floors on her feet and Naruto chuckled at the look on her face. Then they were once again lead to another room where the abbess was supposedly waiting.

Walking down the hallway, Naruto leaned over to whisper a question to Sora. "Why is everyone wearing veils?"

"It's part of their vow," she whispered back. "It's against vanity. All members, both monks and nuns, are required to veil themselves so that they will never think of the way they look because doing so is a completely selfish act. Lives must be dedicated to the whole world."

"Then why are they living away from the world?"

"Because they have ties in the world they must cut. There are a surprisingly large number of clan heirs and ex-convicts here."

Naruto was about to question her, when the door in front of them swung open. There, sitting on the floor was a monk, indistinguishable from all the others. "Ah, Sora. It gives me great joy to see you again."

Sora smiled, unable to see the face, but able to recognize the voice. "And I am happy to see you as well, Rinpoche."

"But you will not stay more than a night?"

She shook her head. "No, Rinpoche."

"There are those who think that you live here permanently. They come looking for the dGra Klesha, thinking that they have become nuns here away from the world."

"Then people don't understand me very well. Yasu might survive in an abbey as long as she could keep researching, but I would never make it. The name dGra Klesha was something we were given, not something that we chose. Neither of us were ever religious."

"And yet you come here."

"Because it's hella cold outside. Even in summer, these mountains are freezing."

"Indeed. Well, you shall have to come have tea with me. Then you can explain where you have been for the last five years and how you come to have such interesting traveling companions." He turned to Naruto and put a hand on his shoulder. "It is not everyday I meet someone with a demon inside them and I have yet to come up with a plausible explanation as to how it would occur. I look forward to talking to you. Would you mind telling me you story?"

"Umm, sure, whatever makes you happy."

There was a slight sound of laughter. "You cannot make the sky blue," he said.

"Huh?"

"I am already living in the light of happiness all the time; therefore you cannot make me happy. You can make me happier, but never just happy."

"You're happy all the time?"

"My life is dedicated to others. What is there that could make me happier?"

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"I liked them, but they were kinda weird," Naruto said as they left the abby.

"That's exactly what I say," Sora agreed.

Hinata just shrugged. She hadn't thought they were all that strange: living like that held a certain appeal to her, although she didn't think she could live a life without children. But the quiet, restful nature of the abbey had appealed to her.

"You liked it, didn't you?" Naruto asked curiously.

She nodded. "It reminded me of what home felt like before my mother died. It was quiet, but it wasn't cold."

Naruto got a very worried expression on his face. "You like it quiet?"

She smiled slightly. "I like it warm. And you," she said, reaching up on her tip toes to kiss his cheek. "Are the warmest person I know."

He blushed and ducked his head, squeezing her hand.

Sora rolled her eyes. "Dear lord, when did you two get so sappy?"

They finally emerged from the mountains over a week and a half from when they started. Sitting at the foot of the last mountain was a decent sized town where they planned to stay the night.

Before heading for the hotel, they headed for a restaurant for a lunch. They sat on the second story balcony of a place specializing in some sort of strange food that involved cracking open these puffy pastry thingies and then filling them full of stuff before you ate them. Sora was obviously a pro, but Hinata and Naruto were having a hard time not having the whole thing crack on them. More food was ending up on the table then in their mouths.

"Mmmmm, I had forgotten how much I missed the food," Sora said, closing her eyes in bliss. Naruto and Hinata looked like themselves, but Sora had transformed herself into a stereotypical western woman of about 40 so as not to attract attention.

Naruto frowned as the pastry crumbled in his hands, spilling all over his plate. The little bit he got in his mouth burned his tongue "Ahhhh! This is the most impossible to eat stuff in the world!" he yelled, pointing at his plate.

"Hey, miss," a deep voice said in the western tongue.

Sora looked up to see a huge bare-chested man standing next to the table. "Yes?"

"The kid's annoying. Teach him to eat properly and tell him to shut up."

Sora's eyes flashed. "He's not from around here. Cut him some slack."

The man leaned down and thrust his face into hers. "I don't give a damn where the hell he's from. Get the idiot under control." The man walked off.

Naruto was about to get up and start yelling at him, when both Sora and Hinata's hands came down on his shoulders.

"Did you hear what he said?" he asked them, switching back into eastern.

"Course I did. We'll get him, just not in a way that will get us in trouble." Sora grinned. "Your mother actually taught me how to do this. High time I passed it onto you."

Hinata looked back and forth between the two of them, frantically trying to diffuse the situation. "You guys he didn't actually do anything that bad."

"And we won't do anything too bad to him. Now watch this. We're going to force him to transform." Sora started making seals underneath the table. "Projected transformation no jutsu," she said quietly, starting at the man. After a second she relaxed and giggled.

Naurto and Hinata looked around behind him to see the man, still looking like himself, but now dressed in a rather lovely pink floral saree. All the men who were standing with him at the bar were laughing hysterically.

Sora gave them a self satisfied smile. "See if I was really mean, I would change his voice and maybe put some sort of hypnotism technique on him to make him act like a girl. But that would be a waste; genjutsu really takes too much out of me to really justify it." She went back to eating.

"Cool, I want to try."

"Well you'll have to wait until someone else insults us. Or is mean to an innocent bystander: Nanashi used to do it to men who were harassing girls." She laughed. "You come across your prankster genes legitimately."

Hinata stared down at her plate. She had just about given up on trying to get any of the strange food into her mouth. She wanted chopsticks.

"Ya'll done?" Sora asked, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"As done as we're going to be," Naruto grumbled.

"Cool, then lets go get a room and plan out what we're going to do for the next few days," Sora said, getting up to leave.

The pair followed her out, unaware of the fact that there were two pairs of eyes following them out the door.

They found a hotel and settled in before hauling out the maps and starting to discuss plans for the next few days. However one person had a far more immediate problem he wanted to deal with. Naruto's primary concern was going out and finding something edible, preferably something that involved ramen noodles. His secondary concern was doing it with Hinata and without Sora.

Unfortunately for him, Sora wasn't having any of it.

"I can't let the two of you go wondering around the village unescorted! What is someone tried to take you?" Sora and Naruto stood practically nose to nose, yelling at each other. Naruto was trying to get Sora to let him and Hinata explore the city some without her. He really wanted some time with her without Sora around. There were some things you just couldn't try with your big sister around.

"We're really well trained now! Even if something does happen, we can hold them off long enough for you to get there. Not that we wouldn't be able to kick their asses by ourselves. The battle probably be over when you arrived."

"Because you'd be snatched off by Itachi and spirited away to some secret hideout where I can rescue your ass!"

"You said they don't know where we are!"

"I said I'm pretty sure they don't know where we are. Actually knowing is a whole different kettle of fish!"

Naruto stared at her. "Kettle of what?"

Sora took a deep breath, ready to start yelling again.

"Onee-chan?" Both Naruto and Hinata were startled by the sound of Hinata's voice. They turned and looked at her. "Naruto and I wouldn't go far from the hotel. We just want a chance to look around a bit. We could stay close enough that you would be able to tell if something was going on. Plus, anyone would have trouble taking us out of a crowd."

Sora sighed. "Fine, fine, you have exactly two hours. If the two of you aren't back here in two hours, I am going to come looking for you and it's not going to be pretty."

The pair wasted no time gathering up their stuff and running out the door. "Be careful!" Sora yelled after them, as they ran down the stairs of the hotel and out into the street.

They stopped right outside of the door, staring at amazement at the sight around them. Where Leaf's architecture all seemed to go together in a somewhat organized, if eclectic, method, things here seemed to be out of control. People crowded the streets, shoppers and venders and people who just seemed to be mulling around. They yelled, calling out about how good their wares were or how they needed to get through with the cart. The buildings rose tall over the crowded streets, tan stucco walls reflecting the beating light of the sun.

Naruto smiled and grabbed Hinata's hand. "Come on, lets go see if we can find any ramen."

They weren't able to find any ramen, but they were able to find a number of pots full of bubbling sauces. After the first and only one they tried ended up practically burning the roof of their mouth off, they settled on some sort of grilled meat on a stick. Walking along, they stopped and looked at the vendors and shops, selling clothing and talismans, weapons and food.

Hinata stopped at one of the windows and peared in through the glass.

"What?" Naruto asked, looking into the window next to her. His heart stopped when he saw that it was a salon.

She fingered the end of her long ponytail. "I was just thinking that I should get my hair cut again. In this heat, having long hair is going to be tough," she said, munching on her satay.

He opened his mouth to tell her not to, when he remembered how Sora acted everytime someone commented on her hair. She always yelled something along the lines of "It's my hair, I like it and that's what counts" although generally with curse words liberally inserted before, after and during.

Would all women react to having their hair choices critiqued like that? Sakura had cut off all of her hair while he was knocked out and then simply said it was time for a change. When he pestered her about it, she yelled at him. Then again, she always yelled at him.

Oh, no. He wasn't going to risk talking to Hinata about her hair. He could be sneaky about it, he knew he could.

He tried to think of ways to talk her out of it without actually telling her what to do. "But... all the women here have long hair," he said, waving his satay stick around.

"Yes, but they put it up in a bun to keep it off the back of their neck." She sighed. "We'll I'll wait until tomorrow and see if Sora will take me. No point in wasting our time getting my hair cut." She smiled and started to move on down the street.

Naruto stared after her for a few seconds before running to catch up. He had to think of a way to keep her from cutting her hair!

Walking further down the street, they ducked into something that claimed to be an antique shop. The air inside was dark and musky, most of the furniture covered with dust. Urns sat on top of carved tables and sets of singing bowls lined the shelves. And in the back was a long glass case filled with jewelry.

Hinata leaned over the case, studying the contents. "Those are pretty," she said, pointing.

Naruto scrunched up his nose and peered through the glass. They were sticks made out of some sort of wood with white glass balls on the top with some sort of flower drawn on them. From underneath the balls there were little ropes of slightly curved disks of glass "Why would anyone need such short, fancy chopsticks?"

Hinata laughed softly. "They're not chopsticks, they're hair sticks. You use them to put your hair up."

The phrase 'put your hair up' caught Naruto's attention. He bent down to study them closer. Looking at them from below, he caught site of the price tag. They weren't cheep but he should be able to swing it. After all, he was still getting his gennin pay from Tsuande via Sora and he wasn't really buying anything. There was only so much ramen even he could eat. "You use these things to put your hair up? How?"

She started to explain, going through the motions. "Well you pull the hair up into a bun, and then catch some of the hair in the bun with the stick and then you sort of flip it over and catch more of the hair on the..." She trailed off at the lost look on Naruto's face. "Its sort of hard to explain."

"Oye! Mister! Come open the case for us!" he yelled at the shopkeeper in loud if slightly jumbled western.

The man looked up from reading his newspaper, then slid off the stool and rambled over to the case.

"Whatcha wanna look at?" he said in an irritated tone, convinced that he wasn't going to get a sale out of the teenagers. At least that what Naruto thought he said: his accent was a little hard to understand.

Naruto jabbed his finger at the front of the case. "Those hair thingies."

The man took a key from his pocket and unlocked the back of the case before reaching in a grabbing the two sticks. "They're vintage glass, from just a few years after that particular factory was destroyed in a gang war. The base is magnolia wood which is apparently what inspired the etching on the main ball and petal shaped beads."

Neither of them got any of that, but it didn't really matter. Naruto took them out of his hand and gave them to Hinata. "Go on, try them."

"But I..."

"I wanna see how these things work. Go ahead."

Hinata sighed, tugging the band that held her hair in a tail at the base of her neck. Then gathering all her hair up into her hands, she started to twist it into a large bun. She held it in place with one hand as she slid the sticks into her hair. The white glass sparkled like little stars against the blackness of her hair.

Naruto nodded. They looked good and her hair was now up. No reason to get it cut if it was up. Oh yeah, he was the man. He had it all figured out. He turned to the shopkeeper.

"You're asking too much for them. There's no way I'm going to pay that much for hair thingies."

"Wait, what?" Hinata asked, whirling around.

The shopkeeper's eyes narrow, sensing that he might have underestimated the boy. Or rather, underestimated the boy's purchasing power. "Nonsense. Those are easily worth 150."

"One hundred and fifty?" Hinata gasped, shocked.

"Ha! More like twenty five!"

"Perhaps one hundred twenty five, but no lower. They're antiques."

"You said they were vintage. Fourty."

"Young man they mean essentially the same thing. One hundred."

"Fifty."

"Seventy five."

"Done," Naruto said, hauling out a large fat frog. He removed the money and put it on the counter before reaching up to take the price tag off the end of one of Hinata's hair sticks. "Come on, Hina-chan we only have forty five minutes left."

"But, but" she sputtered.

Firmly putting his hands on her shoulders, Naruto started to steer her out of the shop. "Come on, I think I saw a tea shop across the street. We can try that chai stuff Sora has been talking about."

Still protesting, Hinata allowed Naruto to push her out of the shop and into the street.

Hinata sat across from Naruto in the booth of the teashop. "I can't believe you bought these," she said, reaching up to once again finger the ornaments in her hair. She knew that most girls would be swooning at this point. Not only had her boyfriend bought her a present, it had been jewelry and relatively expensive at that. But she didn't want him to think that she expected this, that she thought that this was an important part of being his girlfriend.

"But you were complaining about how hot it was," he said, he mouth full of some salty concoction of crackery things on the table.

She had said that yes, but she wasn't playing games. She hadn't been trying to drop hints that she wanted a present or insinuate anything. "But that meant that it was hot, not that I wanted you buy me hair things."

She had been protesting since the moment they left the store. Man, had he done something wrong without realizing it? "You like them, don't you?"

"They're gorgeous, but-"

"So what's the problem? Your hair is off the back of your neck and they look pretty." He was desperate. He really couldn't see what he had done that was making her question him. She liked, he bought. It wasn't as if he had a whole lot of other things that he needed the money for.

"They were just so expensive!"

And if they kept her from chopping her hair off, they were worth every cent. "I didn't mind. What did I do wrong?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't understand what I did that was wrong! You say you like them, I wanted to get them for you, so I bought them." He was pleading with her, trying to figure out where in this process he had gone wrong. Maybe she realized that he was trying to keep her from cutting her hair and was upset about that. "Just tell me what I did!"

Hinata sighed. "I just don't want you to think that I expect this sort of thing. I mean...just because I'm your girlfriend now, doesn't mean you have to buy me things."

"But I want to."

She laughed. The whole thing was just so atypical of other couples. "I know...a lot of girls would drop hints that they wanted something expensive and romantic and then expect their boyfriends to go out and get it for them. But they don't actually tell them they want it, and they get mad if they don't get it. I don't want to play those kinds of games."

Naruto found this very confusing. "Huh? We never have before. Why would that change?"

"Well, now that we're going out, I just worry that...I don't want to start doing stupid couple things just because we're going out. I want to do couple things, just not the stupid ones." Gods that had sounded nonsensical.

"And the hinting that you want something expensive and then me going out and getting it one of those things?"

"Yes. As is feeling like you have to buy me things."

"But that's not what happened, with the hair thingies."

"I know...I just wanted to make sure it wasn't."

"So then, it wasn't that I bought you the hair thingies, it was what you thought my reason's where for buying you the hair thingies?"

She stared at him for a second and then shook her head. "I sound like a complete idiot don't I?"

He waved his hands frantically in front of himself. "No, no, I just don't get what you're saying. But don't worry about it; just tell me if I do it again, okay?"

She laughed softly to herself. It hadn't even occurred to him that she was playing games. It hadn't occurred to him to buy them for her because that was what a 'good boyfriend' was supposed to do. He just knew she liked them and wanted to get them for her.

Sometimes she forgot just how straight forward things with him tended to be.

"Naruto –kun?" she said softly.

"Hai?"

She smiled at him and reached up to brush the end of them with her fingertips. "I love them. Thank you."

He grinned and held his hand out to her on the tabletop. She placed her hand in his and felt him squeeze it. "Your welcome."

Sora sighed as she sat at the hotel bar, nursing a chocolate martini. When had she become such a pushover?

Ah, well, the damage was already done. They were young and in love and thought they were invincible.

The chance that Itachi had figured out where they were was small. After all, she was good at slipping under the radar; it was one of the things that had made the dGra Klesha so powerful. Nope, no one, not even Obaa-chan knew where they were.

"Hello, Sora," a voice said behind her.

Maybe she had spoken to soon.

**Original Author's Notes**: Hmmmm, that's a rather nasty cliffhanger. Ah, well.

And in the next chapter we get to see how well I can do writing a fight scene. Not my forte, as I proved in the SoraNaruto battle way back there, but I'm going to give it a go.

FYI, there are going to be about 30 chapters total, maybe a few less. There are four major fights, so its going to be a lot of action. The story ends in the same place it began.


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Sora turned around and looked at the voice behind her.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

There was a man and a woman; both dressed in gathered black pants and open jackets. She wore the traditional midriff baring blouse, while he was bare-chested. Their skin was dark creamy color and they possessed a highly muscular build. Around both of their waists were blood red sashes.

There was no way you could mistake them, which was probably why most of the bar was starting to clear out.

Kaze warriors. A partnered pair most likely. After years of avoiding them, she had run smack into a pair the day she came back. Couldn't fate cut her a break once in a while.

She pointed at herself. "Me?" she asked in as innocent of a voice as she could muster.

The women sneered, twisting full lips. "We've waited years for you to venture back into our territory and here you are. We're not about to let you go, Sora."

She tilted her head to the side and tried to look stupid. "I'm sorry, I am Sora, but I don't know what you are talking about. Maybe you have the wrong person? It is a common name in the east."

Again the women sneered. "Don't play stupid with us. We heard you in the restaurant. I only speak a little eastern, but enough to hear the names Sora and Nanashi. Plus, no middle age woman would sit in a bar in the middle of the afternoon and drink. Who else could you be?"

"Very thirsty?" Sora asked.

"Well, if you're not going to be cooperative, maybe we should just go see if we can find those two you were traveling with." The woman and her partner turned to go.

A kunai flew over the top of her head, cutting some of the hair in her bun.

"Well, if you really want to get your ass kicked, I suppose there is nothing I can do about it," Sora said, releasing the illusion spell and crossing her leather clad legs. At the sight of her, the rest of the bar cleared out.

The woman arched an eyebrow and looked back over her shoulder. "Large words from someone who couldn't keep her identity secret for five minutes once she came back to the east."

Sora shrugged. "Everyone messes up sometimes." But she had really done a doozy this time. The only thing keeping her from berating herself was the fact that she knew she was going to need to concentrate to keep the situation under control. She had to have confidence in the kids to figure it out by themselves.

"Indeed. We should have never let you and Nori leave the Kaze alive. But now that you are back within our reach we won't be letting you go again."

"Just for old times sake, could I get your name? I just want to see if I remember you."

The women grinned what was obviously meant to be a sinister smile. She wasn't very good at it. "He's Nitin. I'm Chaula."

Sora grinned. "The one who used to cry because her curry was too hot?"

The grin instantly fell off of Chaula's face. "I also remember beating the hell out of you."

Sora looked up at the ceiling, as if she was thinking hard about something. "I was a good, what five years younger than you?" She shrugged. "Unfortunately for you, age is now a difference in my advantage, as well as the fact that I haven't been stuck in the Kaze rut for years."

The two warriors tensed and their eyes hardened, although the man continued not to speak. The woman's voice was harsh when she spoke. "The way of the Kaze is the best way in the world. That you do not agree only shows your ignorance."

Sora polished off the rest of her martini. "Really? Well, why don't we just step out of town and see what that rut has given you?" She put money on the counter and slipped off her barstool.

The woman smiled again. "Your regard for the lives of bystanders is famous. It kept the dGra Klesha accepted by the public, but it makes you weak. The Kaze show no such weakness."

Naruto and Hinata were walking back hand in hand to the hotel, when they noticed a crowd was starting to form between them and the hotel. People were crowding around, standing up on their tiptoes to try and see.

"Is it really them?"

"No, it's only one of them."

"Man, I thought they were dead."

"I heard they turned into nuns."

"No way, not with the way they dressed."

"She's going after the Kaze now?"

"I heard the Kaze is going after her."

It only took Naruto and Hinata a few seconds to realize what was going on. Frantically they started to push their way to the front of the crowd.

They broke through the front lines just in time to see Sora come crashing through the hotel window. She arched her body up and over, back flipping across the street before leaping up to land on the railing of the balcony of the building immediately across the way.

She sat down and looked casually over her shoulder. "It's probably best if you leave," she said to the customers and waiters, all trying to quietly enjoy a late lunch.

She crossed her legs as the restaurant customers on the balcony rushed out. "You know the Kaze's reputation has been going down considerably in the last few years. You're certainly not regaining any of that now," she said as her two attackers emerged from the broken window.

The woman sneered. "We're just getting warmed up."

Naruto started forward, but Hinata held him back. Looking down at her questioningly, he realized why she had done it. Sora was doing okay, at least for now, and it was better to save their energy for later on should they need it. Plus the fighters were obviously Kaze; probably wanted to deal with them herself.

Naruto and Hinata could just barely see the woman as she went flying across the street, landing on the balcony rail as one leg shot out to kick Sora's head off her shoulders. Sora bent backwards, avoiding the hit, only to find that the man was now behind her. The outside blade of his hand sliced through her throat.

The man growled low in his chest as the clone disappeared. He and his partner looked left and right, trying to find her. As their heads were turned, Sora swung around the edge of the roof and slammed both of her feet into his chest before once again landing on the railing. The man stumbled backwards into the wall. A few seconds later, his chest burst into flame.

"Ninjutsu," breathed Chaula. "What sort of fighter uses ninjutsu?"

Sora shrugged. "Everyone but the Kaze. Gone are the days when good taijutsu was all that needed to win battles. Gone are the days when using it makes one seem corrupt. All's fair in love and war."

A manic look came into Chaula's eyes. "We will see." She charged at Sora, flipping over onto the railing, before twisting around, trying to confuse Sora as to where her attack was going to be coming from.

Unfortunately, Kaze tricks did not work on those who were trained by the Kaze. Sora stood and blocked the kick with her shin. Then she grabbed the back of Chaula's head and smashed it into one of the support beams before throwing her down into the street.

Naruto swallowed hard. He knew that Sora was not a Leaf shinobi. He knew that she was a mercenary. But after the event the first day on the road where she had taken an almost pacifistic stance, it had never occurred to him how...brutal his sister was capable of being. But as the women stood up in the street, blood streaming down one side of her face from being smashed into the post, her legs trembling slightly, Naruto looked up to see Sora looking down at her with cold, hard eyes.

Sora was about to administer a lecture on how the Kaze should leave them alone and consider themselves lucky that Sora thought that the Lady of the house was simply a bitch and not klesha when she realized that she should not have counted the man as being dealt with. She sensed him just in time to turn as he barreled into her, running them both off the edge of the balcony. She barely managed to twist in the air enough to land on top of him instead of the other way around.

Twisting his wrist back against his arm, she slid free from his grasp just in time to block another kick coming in from Chaula. Naruto watched as Sora faulted slightly and the woman managed to land a blow on her thigh, pinching a nerve. Sora was getting tired and her moves were starting to show it. But just the taijutsu shouldn't be tiring her out so quickly. There had to be something else going on as well.

He looked down at Hinata. "She's tired," he said.

Hinata instantly realized what he was asking and with a nod, turned on her bloodlimit and watched the chakra swirl around Sora. "She's prepping earth, and she's marked them both" she whispered back to him. Naruto nodded. Sora was getting ready to do some jutsu with earth, although until she began to seal, they wouldn't be able to tell what it was. She probably wouldn't use her bloodlimit here: there were too many witnesses. She'd also put a marker on the two Kaze fighters so that the jutsu would only affect them.

Sora bent her knees and jumped up into the air, followed closely by Chaula. She quickly began to form hand seals, twisting in the air and blocking kicks with her shins. "Earth Anchor no Jutsu!" she yelled and used one foot to push away from Chaula in the air.

A rope of dirt shot up from the ground and wrapped itself around Chaula's ankles. With a short shriek of surprise, she was pulled sharply to the ground where more ropes wrapped around her arms and torso. A few feet away, the same thing was happening to her partner.

Sora landed gracefully on her feet a few feet away. She ran through a few one handed signs before slamming her hand into the ground and yelling "Entrapment!" The dirt from the ropes started so spread out, coating both of them completely in a layer of earth. Soon they were frozen in place, all sound and all movement locked in the dirt. Sora breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to calm her breathing. She sauntered over to the two encased in dirt, and spotted Naruto and Hinata across the circle. She grinned and was about to start bragging when she noticed four more Kaze warriors sneaking up behind them.

"Look out!" she yelled, as she started to head over for them, only to be blocked by the arrival of more Kaze fighters.

Naruto and Hinata for their parts had managed to evade the initial grasp of the fighters who had come up behind them and how now entered the fray. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he yelled, producing a dozen clones which evened out the numbers.

"There should be twelve of them!" Sora yelled. "Right now we've only seen ten, so chances are there are still two more out there hanging back." Naruto's clones jumped the four men splayed out in front of Sora. "Hey! You worry about your idiots, I can handle mine," she said, starting the Chakra Bind no Jutsu. The blue light spiraled up and down her forearms before settling in on her hands.

Naruto grinned at the man and girl in front of him. "You guys picked the wrong people to mess with," he said, a group of clones behind him, cheering him on.

The girl, who appeared to be about thirteen, looked at him with wide eyes. "Is that really Sora? THE Sora?"

This had not been the question Naruto hade been expecting. He looked at her, puzzled and slightly offended. "Huh? Of course she's THE Sora!"

The girl's eyes were practically sparkling. "And you're her apprentice?"

"I'm her brother."

A look of pure shock came over the girl's face, quickly followed by adoration. You could almost see the little hearts dancing around her head. "Really?" she asked.

The man next to her had had enough. "Shivani!" he yelled sharply, shaking the girl out of her daydream.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly, and moved into an opening stance.

Man, of all the luck! Naruto pouted slightly at the idea of having to beat up a girl. But she was Kaze, and there were two more guys standing a few feet away, honing in on Hinata and he didn't like the look in their eyes. He wanted to get rid of these guys and fast.

The girl, now identified as Shivani, came at him with a garass to the head, hooking her ankle around and through his face. Thankfully, she wasn't able to tell the difference between the clones and the body simply puffed into smoke.

Out of the clouds came a kick, catching the girl in the side and sending her flying off to the side. Naruto spun low and tucked his legs underneath himself and spotted the man a few feet away. He had successfully gotten rid of a number of the clones and was now prepping to attack the real Naruto.

Naruto breathed deep and put one hand down out, as if ready to ward off an incoming attack. Discreetly, he slipped his right hand behind his back and started to make a series of one handed seals.

The man's eyes narrowed. He didn't do ninjutsu: the Kaze were above such things. Their taijutsu was strong, strong enough to beat any foe not matter what they came armed with. But no matter how little he knew about how to perform a jutsu, he knew that it took two hands to perform one. The boy must be reaching for a kunai.

He charged in, moving to block the anticipated kunai with one arm. His opposite hand moved in to rip out Naruto's throat.

But when Naruto whipped his hand out from behind his back, there was nothing in it. The flat of Naruto's palm landed against the man's arm and he grabbed it and grinned. "Fever no Jutsu!" he yelled, pumping chakra into the man's body. Suddenly, the man felt his body temperature began to rise and he began to sweat even more heavily. Despite this he started shivering, and an ache was starting to form between his eyes.

Naruto jumped up slightly, driving both of his feet into the man's stomach. Then using his planted hand, he whipped himself up and over, flipping over backwards and landing on top of the man's chest. He wheezed as all of the air was crushed out of his lungs.

Immediately, Naruto jumped up and ran to Hinata's side. The sickly sensation left the man as soon as Naruto's hand left contact with his arm. He continued to lie on the ground, trying to regain his breath.

Hinata stood perfectly composed in front of her two opponents, her face a quiet mask of calm. She moved into opening position.

The man in front of her sneered. "The bitch has been teaching you Shina-To-Be? This is going to be fun. Come on, let's rip her apart."

The men attacked her, first heading towards her front then repositioning themselves slightly to come in from either side. Hinata feigned right and then went straight up and over the head of one of her attackers. It was a classic Shina-To-Be move, however what was to come next was not. Pressing her middle and index finger together, she sighted the chakra holes that ran up the spinal cord in the man's neck. Snapping and recoiling her fingers quickly, she pressed all the holes, paralyzing his neck and with it the nerve connections. The man collapsed to the ground.

The second man stared at her. "What the hell did you do?" he demanded, suddenly noticing for the first time the raised veins around her eyes.

"I sealed the first few of the major chakra holes in his neck. There's no permanent damage," she said in slow, careful western. She was shaking on the inside, part of her thrilled at what she had just been able to do, part of her terrified at what was going to happen next. But after months of training with Yasu, she stood completely calm and every inch the lady.

The man's eyes flashed. "You bitch!" he yelled and charged at her. Hinata stepped into a fighting stance and prepared to hit the holes on his chest.

Then she felt a movement behind her, someone coming up behind her fast. Recognizing the rhythm of the run, she sprung into the air, clearing the way just in time for Naruto to come charging in the Rasengan.

She smiled sweetly up at him. "Thank you."

He grinned back. "No problem."

"She partner trained you," a voice said in awe.

They looked away from each other to see that the girl, Shivani, had recovered from being kicked and was now standing in front of them. But she seemed more interested in talking about Sora then attacking them.

"I can't believe she partner trained you, that's amazing! She left before she was able to complete any of the partner training," the girl rattled off, enthusiastically. "She must have taught it to herself."

Actually, Sora hadn't even thought of partner training them until Nori had suggested it. Both of them had taught Naruto and Hinata, with Nori supplying most of the basics. However, they had been warned not to mention Nori or Yasu on this side of the mountains. Nori was still the heir to the de-throned Reifujin no Kaze: he didn't want anyone to think that he was interested in the position and come after his family.

However, it was doubtful that she was going to listen to them anyway. She seemed to be off in her own world.

Which she was abruptly brought out of when one of her associates, chakra freshly bound, came flying through the air to land at her feet. The man groaned and lolled on the ground.

All three of them turned to look at Sora. She was partially obscured by the still dirt covered forms of Chaula and Nitin, but they could see her working on the last remaining Kaze warrior.

Naruto ran and jumped up to deliver a flying kick to the man's head. He managed to dodge, but ran himself right into Sora's palm. He whipped his head around just to see Sora seal all his chakra.

Sora and Naruto watched the man drop to the ground, before grinning at each other, letting out a whoop of success and giving each other a high five. "All RIGHT! Nobody better mess with us!" Naruto yelled.

Sora looked around. "I still only saw ten of them, including that one," she said, waving a hand at Shivani, who was still just standing there. "Which means that we're still missing two. What is she doing anyway?"

"We're having some problems with her at the moment," a voice said from behind them. They all turned to look.

Everyone gasped, even Shivani. Two women of the Kaze stood there, knives pulled and held at the throats of two children, no older than five with wide, frightened eyes. Their feet dangled in the air as they struggled for air. A thin trail of blood ran down one of their necks.

Naruto's fists clenched at his sides. "You bastards, put those kids down."

The woman grinned and there was a slightly crazed edge to it. "Then come with us."

"What happens if we go with you?" Hinata asked.

"Then you appear before the Lady of the Wind. Your teacher here has crimes she must answer for."

"There is no longer a Lady of the Wind and the only crimes that were committed were those by you," Sora said, eyes shooting daggers at the two women.

The smile dropped and the woman snarled. "We committed no crimes. It was the Lady who tried to rip us away from tradition, who tried to dirty our lines and those who supported her who committed the crimes. And now we find that you have further trespassed against us by teaching those not Kaze our secrets. Too long have we let you run amuck and mock us! We will not let you escape this time."

"Tell me where in the Kaze's history did they put knives at the throats of innocent children. You have become nothing more than schoolyard bullies."

"That's enough!" the woman screamed. "Every second you delay you are killing them. Are you going to surrender or not?"

Sora looked over her shoulder at Naruto and Hinata who were in turn looking at the girl Shivani. Her eyes were wide and she was shaking ever so slightly.

"Hey, kid," Sora said.

Shivani looked up, startled by her voice. She had a white sash, Sora realized, a sign that she was lower ranking than the others they had been dealing with.

"What's your name?"

"Shi-Shivani."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Shweta's Shivani?"

The girl nodded. Well, with her family, she was probably as close to a trustworthy Kaze as one could find these days.

Sora pointed to the women behind her with a jerk of her thumb. "Have they done this before?"

She nodded.

"And they killed the children?"

The girl's voice was small and trembled with fear. "The only time someone was able to get the children away, they started randomly killing bystanders until the person surrendered."

Naruto and Hinata's eyes widened in horror. Sora had told them that things within the Kaze had gone downhill since the killing of Nori's family and the instating of the branch family as the head of the clan. However, they hadn't imagined that things had gotten this bad. It was hard to think of the farmer as having come from such stock.

From the disgusted look on Sora's face, it was clear that she hadn't thought that it would have gotten so bad so quickly either.

They were running out of options. If they managed to get the two kids out of the grasp of the women, they would start randomly killing people. It looked like Shivani would not be participating, but some of the others were starting to revive. There was no way that the three of them could prevent the Kaze from killing any defenseless people. However, if they did not make a decision soon, the women would kill the two children.

Sora looked at Naruto and Hinata. They looked at each other for a second before turning back to her and nodding in unison.

She looked back over the shoulder at the women.

"Alright, we'll come with you, just put the kids down. I've been wanting to give the so called Lady of the Wind a piece of my mind anyway.

**Original Author's Notes**: I'm reposting this because I have a wonderful new beta, TimeShifter. I had so many wonderful offers that it was hard to decide, but when hr noted in his review that I had asked for a beta who liked fics that were cannon instead of canon, I knew I had found the person I needed.

Well, there we go: another fight scene. Please tell me what you think, I'm really nervous about it.

I've posted all of this in my profile, but I'm going to put it in again here just to make sure everyone knows.

Sequels? Hopefully, there will be two.

Return of Itachi? Well, as you can tell, it didn't happen here. But don't worry, he'll make a nice large appearance at the end of the story.

Return to Leaf? Not in Two Halves, but defiantly in the sequels.

Reifujin no Kaze? Means Lady of the Wind. She's the leader of the Kaze Clan.

So again, please let me know what you think of the fighting.

Wren


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

Sora, Naruto, Hinata and Shivani sat in the barred wagon that the Kaze were using to haul them back to the House of the Kaze. It was unclear if Shivani was there as a guard, or being guarded herself. She kept her head down, eyes gazing at the floor, clearly torn between being excited and ashamed.

Naruto reached up and knocked on the wooden walls of the box/carriage/prison they were traveling in. "You know we could bust out of this thing pretty easily. We could always just knock 'em all out and leave."

"It's sealed," Shivani said quietly.

"I thought that the Kaze didn't use jutsu," Hinata said.

Shivani shrugged. "The Reifujin decided that we could seal them without being corrupted as long as we didn't do it ourselves."

Naruto sighed. Sora reached out and poked him with the toe of her boot. "Come on, don't you want the chance to take down the entire clan? This way we have the chance to bring down the house."

Naruto grinned briefly, before he started to wiggle around. "I just don't like sitting here like this." Hinata reached out and rubbed his arm to try and sooth him.

Shivani looked between Sora and Naruto. "Are you too really brother and sister?" she asked.

Sora shrugged. "Basically."

"Wow, that's amazing! There were never even any hints that you had family in any of the stories. I thought that you were an orphan who traveled around with Nanashi. That was the most plausible of the rumors, at least in my mind."

Sora sighed. "Kid, don't listen to all of the rumors you hear. Chances are they're wrong."

"Huh? But that one's right!" Naruto protested.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, but most of them aren't. Naruto there are people who think I've become a nun. Me. A nun."

"So wait, if you were an orphan when you were traveling around with Nanashi, how is he your brother?" Shivani looked back and forth between them, confused.

"He's my brother. It doesn't matter how, and it doesn't matter if the timeline doesn't add up. It just matters that he's my brother. Got it?" Sora asked. The girl ducked her head and nodded.

Hinata shook her head. She had forgotten just how prickly Sora had been when they first left the Leaf with her. Now that she was dealing with Shivani, who had apparently been following the rumors about her, she was mimicking her former bitchiness. She must be reverting back to what she was like when they were in the west.

Naruto noticed as well, although his analysis of the situation was not quite as refined as Hinata's. "Oye, stop being so bitchy," Naruto said, shoving Sora with his foot.

She pushed right back. "Knock it off. She's being nosy."

"That doesn't mean you get to be rude!"

"Oh, like you're some expert on being polite."

Hinata sighed as the banter escalated into a full out foot war, both of them bracing their backs against the wall, trying to poke the other in the stomach with their feet. If Shivani had any doubts they were siblings, they were being dispelled right then. They certainly had the bickering part down.

Sudden the carriage stopped and a few seconds later, the doors swung open to reveal four new Kaze guards.

"Out of there," one of them said.

The four of them exited the carriage as gracefully as possible, moving to stand just outside the doors. There were in some sort of huge reception chamber, several stories tall, with one large center column from which sprouted half a dozen or so arches that provided the main form of the room. On one side they could see the huge arch they had just come in through, now covered by an iron grate. In the mezzanine around the second story there were guards posted at small windows, looking out into the night.

Shivani was immediately hauled aside by another member of the Kaze in a red sash with a large gold pin going through the knot. They were standing too far away to hear, but Naruto could tell that she was getting yelled at. The man grabbed her wrist and hauled her off through a doorway.

"Come on," said the guard, indicating that they should go through the large doorway opposite the gate. Shooting a glare at them, Sora began to move off in the direction of the door.

"Where are they taking us?" Naruto whispered in eastern.

"To see the imposter most likely," Sora whispered back.

"Hey be quiet!" one of the guards yelled. Sora just rolled her eyes.

When the doors at the end of the room were opened, they could see the flickering of torches and the twinkling of stars in the night sky. As they left the entry hall they found themselves in an enormous courtyard, four or five times the size of that of Sora's house. It was full of Kaze warriors, some in black, some in white, sashes flying as they dipped and spun in practice.

Naruto looked at them and then up at the moon. Nearly midnight; they would just be starting. It was too hot here to really train during the day. He watched as a group of students, about the age of ten, stood in neat rows of five, dressed in white with white sashes tied at their hips. An instructor stood in front of them with the drum the Kaze used to keep everyone in step during the sets. In another part of the courtyard a group of students were setting up for sparring, and in yet another a group of twelve were setting up to run a drill. Scattered throughout the courtyard were students working one on one with instructors.

They all stopped what they were doing to turn and stare as the threesome was escorted down the middle of the courtyard by the Kaze guards. Eyes were wide and jaws dropped. A collective hush had fallen.

It was Sora, Naruto realized. The Kaze didn't really care about him or Hinata; they were just random faces. But Sora had left them and become…what exactly had she become? Suddenly he realized that the only real glimpses he had into who his sister had been before she was his sister were the stories that she and Yasu used to tell. Most of these were humorous anecdotes about life as a mercenary, or almost fairy accounts of battles won. He had always thought that Sora had been stretching the truth a little in her stories, making them sound better and more exciting than they actually were.

But if what he had assumed was correct, then why were the people so awed? And why was there so much hope in the air?

And why the hell were they so scared?

Sora just kept her head up and continued walking, looking straight ahead, as if she could not be bothered with those around her.

Unconsciously, Hinata reached out to take Naruto's hand. He grasped it and squeezed.

They were lead up a huge flight of stairs to a pair of large, heavy, wooden doors where yet more guards were posted. It took three of them on each of the large round iron handles to pull the doors open.

Naruto gulped and Hinata tightened her grip on his hand. Sora squared her shoulders and walked into the building.

The room was five or six stories tall at least, with the ceiling arching up above them and the floor dropping below their feet. The door opened onto a raised path that snaked its way to a large platform in the center of the room. There were no railings; one wrong step off of the stone pathway would send you crashing down onto the stone floor below. Hinata imagined that for someone without training, it must be an intimidating sight; death a few steps away and the Kaze guards calmly perched on the edges of the paths. Huge iron lanterns hung from the ceiling by large chains, and moonlight streamed in from large, slender windows.

And in the center of the dais, surrounded by torches and guards, sat the Reifujin of the Wind.

There must have been a day when she was beautiful, and it was clear that she had desperately tried to hang onto that. Her skin was smooth and unwrinkled, but it pulled in unnatural ways that made one think that perhaps it hadn't always been so. She wore too much make up, to the point where it almost looked caked on her skin. Dark eyes glared out at them from under even darker lashes and she reached up to adjust the fall of the saree that was draped around her head. The material was blood red and encrusted with gold embroidery. Rings seemed to drip off of her fingers and the toes of her bare feet. There was a large red ruby suspended by a gold chain resting on her forehead.

Sora calmly sauntered up the path to the stand in front of the Reifujin, Naruto and Hinata following close behind.

The woman sneered, a gesture that just made her look older and pettier. "Sora," she hissed.

Sora tilted her head to one side, and "hmm"ed as if the was contemplating something. "You know, if you would just use jutsu, you could look whatever age you wanted."

Anger flashed in the woman's eyes. "Shut up!" she yelled.

Sora continued as if the Reifujin had said nothing. "Really, we have a friend that does it all the time. She's what, over fifty now?" Sora turned over one shoulder to look at Naruto and Hinata.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, yeah, but she covers it up so you can't tell." He shrugged. "She's really vain."

"But that's nothing compared to her gambling problem. Honestly, sometimes I worry about her."

Hinata watched the Reifujin of the Wind begin to seethe as Naruto and Sora continued to carry on a conversation about Tsunade as if nothing was going on. She looked as if she was about to hemorrhage or something. The Reifujin whipped a kunai out of her saree and threw it at Sora's head.

She turned around and caught it. She rested one hand on her hip as she spun the weapon around on the index finger of the opposite hand. "Now, now, there's no reason to get testy."

The woman snarled. "Do not think that you can come in here and mock me and what I have built with your disrespectful manner."

Sora's face was suddenly serious. "I see nothing in what you have built that deserves respect. You have been the downfall of this clan."

"I have made this clan!" the woman hissed.

"Made them into what? Bullies who pull knives on small children? Warriors who can't even do the things they are famous for? It took me less then fifteen minutes to take down a partnered pair."

"You are a vile wretch who left the Kaze and uses jutsu to dishonorably subdue fine warriors-"

"That's not the point and you know it," Sora interrupted. "Eleven years ago I would have never been able to beat them so easily."

Naruto was starting to get pumped and into it as well. He knew just enough to feel like he could really rip into the Reifujin. He pointed at her and started yelling. "Your warriors had to resort to taking hostages to get us in here! That takes no skill. That's nothing more than being a bully!"

The Reifujin stood up, layers of fabric billowing out around her. "I saved the Kaze! It was the Reifujin before me who started to bring us down."

Sora shook her head. "The Reifujin realized that without modernization, the Kaze would never survive. I can understand how some people wouldn't agree, I can understand how they would view it as the downfall of the Kaze, although it wasn't. What I don't understand is how they thought you were going to be a better leader."

"Because I was going to return the purity and the strength of the Kaze. I have brought us back to our glory days."

"Eh? This is what the glory days were like?" Naruto questioned.

"Nope. The supposed glory days were over a hundred years ago. Back then, using chakra was just starting to develop as a powerful tool and the Kaze were the most powerful clan around. They were the best taijutsu users in the West as well as one of the most intellectually respected clans in the world."

Hinata sighed. Everyone in the room already knew all this. Sora hadn't had them studying history for a year and a half without them picking up most of the history of the Kaze. She was doing all of this for dramatic effect. Yasu had warned about how Sora would do this, but she had never actually seen it for herself. Worse, it looked like Naruto was going to be more than happy to play along

"But then," Sora continued, "As things started to fall more and more apart in the West and the weapons got more and more powerful, the Kaze decided that they were going to keep doing just taijutsu and not learn ninjutsu."

"Why's that?" Naruto asked. Hinata suppressed a moan. He already knew why.

"Because they saw all of these clans who were grasping at the new power and using it to do all sorts of horrible things. The power of the Kaze came largely from their character; people respected them because they were controlled and just, whereas other clans were wild and violent. It was thought that perhaps with the addition of ninjutsu, there was too much power to keep people from becoming corrupt. So for years the Kaze only learned taijutsu."

"And we kept pure, and we were not corrupted," the Reifujin said. "Until the wretch who was Reifujin before me corrupted us."

"She decided that the problem was not the amount of power they were given, but the original strength of character of those who were using the jutsu. She had faith in the Kaze's ability to use jutsu without corrupting the clan."

"She was wrong."

"She was the victim of a coup too soon to figure out whether she would be right or not. You barely gave her six months."

"Her time had ended and my time had arisen. There is no reason for me to continue to listen to this. Guards! Take them out into the practice yards and execute them!"

Hinata gulped. A dozen they could handle, but all the people in that courtyard?! There was easily over a hundred fighters out there. Even if all they were trying to do was escape, it was going to be next to impossible to get past all of them. She looked at Naruto and realized that he was all for a fight.

Fortunately, that wasn't Sora's plan. She grinned. "I call immunity for me, my brother and my apprentice."

"Immunity? On what grounds?!"

"I'm still a daughter of the Kaze."

"You left the Kaze! You are nothing but a traitor!"

"Ah, but I cannot be a traitor unless I moved against the Kaze. I just left and traveled around. I might have expressed displeasure in the way the Kaze was being run, but I never fought against them."

"You fought those I sent after you!"

"Only after they threatened my wards."

"You left with the son of the woman who was almost our downfall!"

"And left him almost immediately after to study under a ninja from the East." Her grin widened. "See, I wasn't out betraying the clan, I was learning new things to bring back and assist. I was on _ahsaas_."

"You expect me to believe that for eleven years you have been on _ahsaas_?! That you had been taking part in one of the oldest Kaze traditions?!"

"No. But I expect you to follow the rule of the law."

"Don't be ridiculous! Guards!"

"My lady," a soft voice said.

Everyone turned to look at the guard who had spoken. He was tall and handsome, and while he in fact was still wearing the white sash of a lower ranked guard, he carried a quiet authority about him.

"My lady, she does have a point. According to the law, she is still a daughter of the Kaze and her status is extended to her family and those whom she is training."

"But she is lying, she has no brother."

"Of course I have a brother. I have that brother," she said, pointing to Naruto.

"But he is not your brother by our laws."

"Of course he is. The Reifujin of the Kaze brought me into the Kaze under the clause that Nanshi was my mother."

The Reifujin's eyes went wide. "But that would make him…"

Naruto looked the Reifujin dead in the eye and took a deep breath. "I'm Nanashi's son." It felt strange, but right to say it.

Hatred filled the woman's eyes. "The bitch had no children."

Naruto nearly lost it. "How dare you-" he started to run towards her, only to have Sora and Hinata yank him back.

"Cool it, kid. We're not going to get anywhere attacking her directly," Sora said in eastern. She turned back to the Reifujin. "Tell me, my lady, do you intend to turn your back on centuries worth of law and the old tradition of _ahsaas_?"

The woman glared at her. "You've been using jutsu."

"Which was allowed under your predecessor, under whose reign I began my journey. Her laws were the ones who applied to me."

Sora stood before the throne and smiled. She had the woman cornered and they both knew it. The rights of warriors, including the right to journey without the Kaze in the form of _ahsaas_, were some of the clearest laws the Kaze had. Looking around at the guards she could tell that she had convinced some of them, and raised questions in the minds of most.

It almost worried her. If they were so easily swayed, what was the state of affairs inside the Kaze?

"My lady, do you wish for us to summon the council?" the same guard asked.

The Reifujin offered one more glare to Sora, seething with anger, before admitting partial defeat and turning to sit once again on her throne.

"Assemble the council. Take them to the dungeon and lock them up!" she yelled, gesturing to the trio with a flick of her hand.

Sora smiled. They had lost round one, but they had won round two.

**Original Author's Notes**: If you didn't get the note, I have a wonderful new beta! Thank you so much Time Shifter!

I got a note from someone asking very politely if this was a story about Naruto or my original characters. Frankly, I'm surprised that I hadn't gotten that question before, as I have had a lot of OCs in this fic (TS [TimeShifter - true dat!). However, most of them are there to teach Naruto and Hinata how to deal with things back in Leaf. Hence all the political bogginess in this chapter. It's the baseline for the two of them to start becoming a little more politically savvy. (TS - YAY for political savvyness) Most OCs won't be reappearing much in the two sequels. Except for Sora. Sora's kinda here to stay.


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

"We won that round."

"Eh? Then how come we're in the dungeon?" Naruto glared at his sister over the top of Hinata's head. He was leaning against the stone wall while she leaned back against his chest, his arms around her waist.

"Hey, we didn't had to fight against all the warriors in the Kaze."

"That'd be better than rotting away here!" Naruto yelled. Hinata winced and shushed him, rubbing his arm to try and calm him down. He grumbled and held her tighter. "I don't get all this stuff about the 'purity' of the Kaze."

He felt, rather than heard, Hinata sigh, and pulled away enough to look at her face. "You understand?"

She sighed again. "It sounds like something my father would say. That the strength of the clan lies in the purity of each member." She shook her head. "In fact, I'm almost positive he's said just that."

"And in a way he's right," Sora said.

"What! You mean you agree with that woman!" Naruto said, gesturing wildly with one hand.

Sora shook her head. "When I said that the strength of the Kaze used to lie in their character, I didn't just mean their reputation. Their strength of character actually made their taijutsu better."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"You have a friend back home named Lee who doesn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu, right?" They nodded. "But would you say that he's an easy mark?"

Naruto thought back to the fight between Lee and Gaara. He shook his head.

"Taijutsu is the use of chakra in a different way from ninjutsu. After generations of working only on that method, the Kaze were experts, much in the same way that I'm guessing your friend Lee is. They could do things that you would have thought impossible. They moved faster than anyone I have ever seen, made it look like their enemies' movements had slowed down, or even stopped completely. There were times I swore they could fly."

"What happened?"

"Well, the Kaze attributed their ability to do this to clear-sightedness. Basically, because their intentions were good, they were able to focus without clouds of anger or aggression distorting the view. The old Lady, Nori's mother, thought that they could keep the clouds at bay while learning to use ninjutsu; that the purity of the Kaze's intention could be kept."

"And the bitch upstairs didn't think so?"

Sora shrugged. "I'm not sure WHAT the bitch upstairs thought. As the leader of the branch family, she stood to lose a lot of power if the old Lady continued her reforms into the political structure of the Kaze. Nori's mother was good friends with Nanashi, and so it wouldn't have been out of the question for her to be at least considering political reform."

"So that's why she hates my mother so much," Naruto said darkly.

"Well no one can be universally liked. In any case, shortly after Nori's mother pleaded her case, she began to introduce small, beginning jutsus into the ranks. Transformation, substitution, things that could be easily integrated into battle. She knew that it was going to cause trouble among the ranks, but she was positive that is was the right thing to do.

"Less than six months later, Nori snuck into the girl's dormitory and woke me up. His mother had been killed and they were searching for him. Nori had never wanted to lead the Kaze, and now that his only living relative was dead he was leaving. He only took me because he knew his mother would have wanted it."

They stared at her and she looked away. She knew it sounded cold, the two of them simply running away without avenging her death, Nori only taking her because he knew that it was what his mother would have wanted. But they hadn't been the same people then that they were now, and she didn't know how to explain that.

As if sensing that she wasn't going to understand the answer, Hinata didn't ask the question that was hanging in the air. "Why did Nanashi send you here if things were so unstable?" she asked instead.

Sora winced. It was actually a trickier question than the "How could you do that?!" she thought had been coming. "Nanashi wanted me somewhere where I could learn taijutsu without having to learn ninjutsu, at least for a while."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"Because of my bloodlimit," she said, and there was so much shame in her voice that it brought Naruto and Hinata up cold. They knew that she hadn't used her bloodlimit in the first few years she had been with Yasu, but they had always assumed it was because the nature of her ability had always needed to be kept secret from the general public. But then why the shame in her voice?

"In any case," Sora continued, "The important thing is that it sounds like the Lady is starting to waver and loose support."

"What makes you say that?" asked Naruto.

"The fact that the guards were willing to support my position and call for a council. With the addition of some jutsu use she opens herself up to accusation of hypocrisy. With any luck, we won't have to fight the whole clan to walk away free. Best case scenario, they just let us go and don't pursue us."

Naruto snorted. "Best case scenario she keels over dead."

"But then who would take her place? What would keep it from being someone just as bad as her?" Hinata asked, looking up over her shoulder at him.

"Raoul could," Sora said softly. They both turned to look at her. She scowled. "I'm not saying we should get involved. In fact, overall I think that getting involved in the political life of the Kaze would be a bad idea. I'm just saying that potentially Raoul could take over."

"Who's Raoul?" Naruto asked. His brain was becoming a mess of Kaze names and faces.

"Shweta's son and Shivani's older brother. My guess is that he was the guard who questioned the Lady's orders. He has his father's looks about him. Their family was typically the captains of the Guard."

Naruto was about to question her some more, when a guard appeared at the door of their cell. "You," he pointed at Sora with a stubby finger, "Stay here. The two of you come with me."

"Like hell I'm going to stay here while you take the two of them away!" Sora said, almost snarling at the guard.

"Oye, Nee-chan, don't worry about it. We can take care of ourselves," Naruto said, standing and helping Hinata to her feet.

Hinata was far from convinced that leaving without the only person who seemed to understand what was going on was a good idea. However, defying the guards seemed to her to be an even worse one.

"The Lady wishes to speak to them," the guard growled, "without your presence. What YOU wish is of no consequence."

"Well, she is just going to have to learn to listen to my wishes!" Sora yelled through the bars.

The man snorted. "You must not have trained them very well if you are so afraid to let them go for a few minutes."

Sora's blood boiled. "How dare you! They are better trained than all of your stupid little Kaze warriors combined! You would think that a past-its-prime, fading clan would be a little more-" She stopped abruptly as she realized that while she had been screaming at the guard, Naruto and Hinata had slipped out through the door and into the hallway.

"NARUTO! You get your ass back here in this cell right now!"

He waved at her and stuck out his tongue. "Hang tight Nee-chan, we'll be back."

"HINATA! Don't you let him drag you away, I know that you are more sensible than this! Damn it you two GET BACK HERE!"

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"I have been advised by my council that perhaps simply killing you is not the best policy."

Oh, well that was nice.

It was now almost four in the morning. Neither of them had slept any, and having just finished coming through the mountains that morning, it was only sheer adrenalin that was keeping them going. The couple stood next to each other in front of the Lady, who was now surrounded by what they assumed was the council she had spoken of earlier.

Hinata fought the urge to grab for Naruto's hand. She was a fighter, stronger now than ever before. She could stand on her own two feet; she didn't need to hold on to him for comfort. She shook slightly, but she held her ground.

Naruto glared at the Lady. "That's because we did nothing wrong, you stupid old hag!"

Both of them expected the woman to explode, but instead she was strangely calm. In a way, it was more frightening than her explosive behavior before with Sora. Something had changed since the last time they had seen her.

She smiled cruelly. "Instead, you will be asked to prove the intentions of your teacher."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

The Lady smiled again and started studying her nails. "Well, Sora claims that she has been thinking about what would strengthen the Kaze since the day she left. Therefore, it would only make sense that her apprentices, blood relations or otherwise, would be raised as Kaze."

Hinata got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. "We did not become her apprentices until a little over eighteen months ago. We were raised in the Leaf." A vague sense of panic was rising up within her. She took a deep breath and continued to hold her ground.

Naruto kept staring at the woman as almost palpable tension built up between the two of them. He had just found the scattered remains of his family, and now this woman wanted to insult his mother, call his sister a traitor, and kill all three of them.

He was not going to stand for it.

"That does not change the fact that she has obviously been teaching you at least some of the Kaze trainings. The question is, did you receive enough?"

"What do you mean 'enough'?" Naruto yelled.

The guard, whom Sora had identified as Shivani's older brother Raoul, stepped forward to speak. "Having been taken on as students by a member of the Kaze (,) you are currently considered to be whites. Tomorrow, you test for your blacks."

Naruto's mind raced as he tried to remember what Sora had said about the testing and ranking process for the Kaze. You wore a white uniform with a white sash until you tested for your blacks. You still kept your white sash though until you tested for your red. But the tests themselves he couldn't remember much about.

Oh kami, he hoped there wasn't any history on them.

The Lady of the Wind smiled, but it was a smile full of mockery. "And if you can pass the test, all three of you will be considered members of the Kaze."

Hinata realized that there was something going on here that she didn't understand. The Lady was acting as if this was a victory. She swallowed hard. Was there something about this test that they could not pass?

"Ha! We can pass any test you give us!" Naruto shouted.

The Lady arched one eyebrow. "Really? It will be interesting to see how the students fare when the teacher herself couldn't pass."

Hinata paled. "What do you mean?"

"We reverted the requirements to pass to blacks back to the original requirements a few years ago. Despite the fact that Sora passed to blacks before she left, she doesn't know all of the requirements. You both have to know all of your sets, both the individual ones and the partnered ones. Sora never learned all of them."

Hinata breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. No, Sora hadn't known all of them. But Nori had, and he had been a stickler for technique.

Naruto resisted the urge to shove the fact that they knew them into the woman's face. Nori didn't want the Kaze to know he was alive, so until they could figure out how they were going to cover for the fact that they knew all the sets, they were going to have to keep it a secret.

The Lady yawned and they could both tell that it was just for effect. "And then of course there's one other thing."

"Which is?" Naruto ground out.

"Why, the fight of course. A traditional Kaze duel to the death." She smiled. "Without any jutsus."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Sora sat with her back up against the wall of the cell. Stupid little squirts. When she got her hands on them…

She sighed, and absent-mindedly drummed her fingers on her knee. She wondered what that bitch upstairs was planning. The council could advise and put a lot of pressure on her, but they couldn't actually force her to do anything. She was the sole ruler of the Kaze.

She could hear talking amongst the guards at the end of her cellblock. She peered through the bars towards the exit. The door opened, and she was shocked to see Raoul walking down the hall towards her.

"I don't have much time," he said, his voice low and rumbling. "Shivani is standing watch for right now, but if anyone sees her, they'll be suspicious."

"Why?"

He smiled ruefully. "She's something of a fan of yours."

Sora groaned. "You're kidding me."

"She got in huge trouble a few months ago for putting a big red stripe in her hair. She has been following the attempts to make the movie for months."

Sora's heart stopped. "What movie?"

"The one about the end of the dGra Klesha. Sora, most people think you and Yasu died. There's only been the occasional sighting of you and none of her in the past four years. Where have you been?"

She sighed. "Yasu got married, then she had a kid and then I started training those two upstairs." She looked at him, clearly apprehensive. "What are the bitch's plans?"

Raoul shook his head. "The council was able to convince her that it would be a bad idea to just execute the three of you. Unfortunately, what we managed to get was not much better."

"Which was?"

"They test for their blacks tomorrow. If they pass, you are all considered members of the Kaze. If they don't, you are all traitors and executed."

"Shit, (!)" Sora breathed and rubbed her hands over her face. They were going to keep her locked up in here. She wasn't going to be able to do anything; it was all going to rest on them passing the test. She hated being useless.

"The Lady has put them into a sealed training room for the day. Shivani thinks she can get them out and I can bust you out of here. We'll get the three of you through the wall, and from there you should be able to…"

"Why would we leave?" Sora asked.

Raoul stared at her. "Sora, you left the Kaze after only training here for three years. You yourself just barely passed the test for your blacks and the standards have increased since you were gone. There are things they need to know that you couldn't possibly have taught them."

Sora grinned. "Those two could pass the test for their red sashes. They're good. They took down two of your Kaze warriors each."

"Using ninjutsu. If there is so much of a hint that they are using ninjutsu, genjutsu, bloodlimits; anything that is not straightforward taijutsu, they are going to be disqualified and killed. Plus, they need to know sets and patterns that you never learned."

"They know all the sets, they're partner trained; they can handle this."

"How the hell would they-" Light dawned in Raoul's head. "Nori. Oh kami, we all thought he was dead."

"Keep thinking that. The last thing he wants is for people to decide that he is the right person to take over the Kaze."

Raoul ground his teeth together. "He's willing to hide away somewhere while the clan that his ancestor's built goes to hell?!"

Sora shook her head. "My understanding is that he thinks that putting him in charge would just send things to hell faster. Come on, Raoul, you know as well as I do that he wouldn't want to be Lord of the Wind."

Raoul sighed. "It's been eleven years. I had hoped he had changed."

Sora shrugged. "Those who want to take charge of a whole clan for the right reasons are a rare breed. Most of us aren't that insane."

He took a deep breath. "How green are those kids?"

"What do you mean?"

He looked her dead in the eye. "The Lady restored what she called the original requirements for the test, although I can't find any historical references to it."

"Meaning?"

"The final part of the test is duels between those potentially moving to blacks and a new blacks pair. Individual if their not partnered yet, pairs if they are."

Sora rolled her eyes. "That's nothing new."

"It's to the death."

"WHAT!" Sora grabbed the bars in front of her, pulling herself in close. "But that's ridiculous! Every time you test, you loose half your young fighters!"

"She was adamant on the issue; said it was going to keep us on our toes and in top form. It was one of the first things she did when she assumed power."

They were silent for a second. Then it dawned on Sora. "She used it to weed out the last of those who she wasn't sure were loyal to her."

"Some of them. Other's she poisoned. I'm pretty sure that's what happened to my mother. Shivani and I have had to fight to keep alive. She passed the first test, but just barely. Her partner is very good, but if she gets up against someone much stronger than her, I'm not sure what's going to happen."

"Raoul! Someone's coming!" Shivani whispered.

Sora smiled. "Don't worry about us, we'll make it out just fine."

He frowned. "That's not all that I'm worried about."

Apprehension began to unravel in Sora's chest. "What do you mean?"

He looked at her hard. "Unless the Lady changes the rotations, Shivani and her partner are going to be your kids' opponents."

Sora paled and her eyes went wide.

"Raoul!" Shivani whispered.

Raoul took one last look at Sora, shook his head and headed back down the hall. She leaned against the bars of her cell.

Oh kami, what had she gotten them into.

**Original Author's Notes**: I have lots of notes this time, so skip them if you like.

First of all, check out the drawings of Sora and Yasu that Courei did at (http // courei. deviantart. Com). These are the one's I raved about earlier, but somehow didn't get posted. Check them out; they're really good. (TS – very nice, though Sora looks creepy; I couldn't deal with my sister looking like that!)

Second, people have emailed me asking to use parts of my story they liked or post art based on the story. You really don't need to, the answer will always be yes. I certainly don't ask Masashi Kishimoto permission to use any of his stuff, so why would you have to ask me? Just put a note the way all fanfiction author's have. Although, I do really like to know about it after the fact so that I can check it out, especially the art because I can't draw to save my life. Hopefully, I'll have my own site up and running in a few weeks and I'll be happy to host anything there.

I got the first review that really annoyed me with the last chapter. I am unfortunately unable to email him directly because he submitted without being logged in and didn't leave an email. So all of you get to here my rant. (TS – and me as well!) Just so we were all on the same page, here was the review:

I can't help but notice, but most of your OCs (Who are either strong, powerful, or both) are women. Now this may sound like a sexist comment and maybe it is, but that really isnt realistic.

If it sounds like a sexist comment and you think it might be, why would you make it in the first place? Personally, up until the addition of Tsunade, I felt that females were sadly underrepresented in Naruto. (TS – True, true.) Hinata was really shy, Sakura and Ino were ditzy teenagers and Kanai and Tenten had almost no character at all. I know that it's a fact that most of the time men are more physically powerful than women (I used to grapple with ex-marines, I learned that lesson the hard way). (TS – you grappled with ex-marines?! Remind me to never piss you off!) However, if you actually watch men and women fight, it is not as uneven as everyone seems to think it is. Technique does more to make your kicks powerful than muscle does. Plus, there is no indication that women shouldn't be able to produce and use chakra just as well as men. (TS – True; Sakura has the best chakra control out of the genins.)

According to the rules of the Naruto universe, there should be plenty of powerful females, but they never get brought to the foreground of the story. Plus, there's Nori and Raoul who are strong men and Shivani and Miki who are weak females. The Lady of the Wind is just barely holding on to her power and there hasn't really been a real female villain (Temari is borderline villain material in my book). (TS - I don't count her as evil anymore, since she saved Shikamaru's life in the latest manga chapters) I know there are a lot of females and I know that they are more powerful than most of the women seen previously in Naruto, but when you look at the entire cast, my character and the canon ones, I don't think things are out of balance. (TS – I personally think the females in Naruto are overlooked; I admit, Tenten hasn't proven herself to be really strong, but she has the best aim of any genin. Ino and Sakura aren't "strong" either, but when given a reason, like fighting each other, or in Sakura's case, protecting her unconscious teammates, they're a lot stronger than they let on. And Hinata may act shy and weak, but when Naruto was cheering her on, she was on par with Neji [at least for part of the fight and that's something to brag about, considering she doesn't know Kaiten or the 64 Hands of Hakke!)

Sorry that had to be so public. Flames, really harsh critiques, or people who just plain old don't like my work I can handle. But comments like that where someone tried to hide a basically derogatory comment inside an I'm-just-trying-to-be-realistic shell, especially when pertaining to a fantasy world, is just plain irritating. (TS – I agree completely! Just because I'm a guy doesn't mean I think I'm better than women at everything; hell, I know plenty of women stronger than me, and I'm not afraid to admit that!)


	25. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

It was only ten o'clock in the morning and already it was too damn hot.

Naruto was not in a good mood. Not only had he been awake for almost 24 hours, had his family insulted, and was going to have to take this stupid test in a few hours, but he had been shoved inside a room that felt like a sauna and left to roast all day. He was exhausted and all he really wanted was to wrap his arms around Hinata, bury his face in her hair, and go to sleep. Instead, he was staring out the window of the small white-walled room they have been given to use until the test, watching the heat rise in waves off the pavement and tiled roof of the Lady's tower. He groaned. It was the first time he had Hinata alone in private in weeks; in fact, it was really the first time since he had asked her to be his girlfriend, and it was TOO DAMN HOT!

He stared at her lying on the floor on her stomach, fast asleep. They had been given white Kaze uniforms to wear until the test. She had opted to take off the jacket and sleep in just the pants and blouse. His eyes drifted over the bare midriff of her back. He wanted to run his hand along it, but they were both already sticky and he was worried it would wake her up.

He realized what he had just been thinking.

Aack! No! He was NOT a pervert! He shook his head violently, as if trying to shake the thoughts free. He let himself fall backwards and look up at the ceiling.

Damn it, nowhere should be this hot. He shifted uncomfortably on the thin straw mats laid out on the floor. He stared at the ceiling and groaned.

Hinata sighed and opened her eyes, propping her head up with one hand. Pretending to sleep just wasn't working for her. "What's wrong?" she asked.

He jerked his head over to look at her. "You're awake?"

She nodded. "What's wrong?" she asked again.

He looked back up at the ceiling again. "It's too hot."

When she didn't say anything, he looked over at her. A year ago, he wouldn't have been able to read the expression on her face, but now he could tell that she didn't believe him.

"It IS hot," he grumbled.

She smiled slightly. It was so like him, she realized, to blow the minor inconvenience out of proportion and completely ignore the larger, much worse issues at hand. "You're worried about the test, aren't you?"

He waved his hand frantically in a dismissive gesture. "That? Nah, nah; that'll be a piece of cake. We go in, win the fight, and all walk out free. Easy."

She lay her head back down on the mat. "It's to the death."

He swallowed hard. "I know," he said.

They were silent for a long time; Hinata staring at Naruto, Naruto staring at the ceiling.

"Do you think we'll make it?" Hinata whispered.

"Huh?" Naruto asked, turning to look at her. "Of course we'll make it!"

She looked at him uncertainly. "Naruto..."

"Aw come on! You saw how those guys fought outside the hotel; we can take them easy!"

Hinata bit her bottom lip. "But that stuff that Sora said they could do; slowing people down, practically flying..."

"Eh," he said shrugging. "She said they can't do it anymore, so why worry?"

She sat up and looked down at him. "If you're not scared about losing, then what's wrong?"

He looked up at her, and his eyes that were so rarely serious were suddenly deadly calm.

"Haku asked me to kill him," Naruto said quietly.

Hinata's eyes widened slightly. He had told her about the incident at the bridge in Wave Country before; about thinking that Sasuke was dead, about the partial blackout that came with the uncontrolled tapping of Kyuubi's chakra. But he hadn't told her this before. Every time she thought that she had reached the last of the burdens he carried, there was another one.

She moved closer to his side, still not touching, but just a few inches away from him.

He continued to stare past her at the ceiling. "He wanted to die because he didn't think he was useful to a man who I thought was a monster." He shook his head. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill someone who was standing there asking me to kill him, especially not for a monster."

"I don't think that whoever we fight tonight will be asking us to kill them," Hinata said softly.

"That woman is a monster!" Naruto spat angrily. "And in order to prove to her that they're worthy of their rank, they're ready to kill their comrades or die at their hands. But..." his voice trailed off.

"But what?" she whispered.

His eyes started to dampen at the corners. "I thought Zabuza was a monster too. But then, once Haku had killed himself..." He looked at her, confusion clear on his face. "What if she isn't the heartless monster that I think she is? What if she honestly thinks that this is the right way to do things? And what if the people who we are going to fight tomorrow really do want to die if they aren't strong enough to serve her?"

"That's not right," said a voice from the doorway.

Naruto immediately sat up and looked at the door. Shivani stood in front of the closed door carrying a tray, a sad, almost regretful look on her face.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, rather loudly.

Shivani winced. "Shhhh! If anyone hears that I'm here, I'm going to get in deep trouble." She moved quickly and quietly into the room, her lanagha flowing around her feet, and set the tray down next to them. Her dark hair had been released from its bun and shimmered in waves down her back. She tucked some behind one ear, revealing the typical heavy gold earrings of the Kaze.

"I brought you something to eat. You're going to need your strength for the test tonight. I wasn't sure whether you liked spicy food or not, so I got things that weren't too hot. There's rice in that pot and that's chicken tikki masala. I put lassi in the pitcher and there's naan in the basket and-"She stopped when she realized they were staring at her. "What?"

Hinata looked at the huge spread of food piled up on the tray. "Why are you doing this?" she asked. "You said yourself that you're going to be in deep trouble if anyone catches you here."

The girl smiled softly. "Because you need to win."

"Eh? Why would you say that?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

She sighed and looked out the open window. "I'm too young to really remember what life was like before the Lady came to power. But I know this isn't the way things are supposed to be."

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head. "My brother and I were members of the line of the head of the guards. Our whole family has been killed; we're the only two left. Some mysteriously wasted away, some were executed for treason, and some died in the tests." She looked at them hard. "There was something wrong with the tests."

Hinata swallowed. "What do you mean wrong?"

"It's happened occasionally over the years. All of a sudden warriors will just choke. People who have been fighting all their lives will suddenly just stand there as someone kills them. The Lady says that it is the fates who were striking down the wicked."

Naruto snorted. "But you think she's screwing around with the warriors."

"These were my aunts, uncles, cousins! I knew them, and they were no more wicked than the next person!" she cried.

"How have you escaped?" Hinata asked.

"Raoul made sure that I was partnered as soon as possible and that the partner I received was from one of the Lady's staunchest supporters. In order for him to pass, I must pass my tests as well."

"You mean, if one partner dies, the other one automatically fails? So only one person dies per test?" Naruto asked.

Shivani shook her head. "They are expected to lay down their life as penance for failing their Lady and their partner. You only need to kill one, but both will die."

Hinata shook her head. This was getting worse and worse with every fact they learned. "How can she do that to her own people?"

"Very little of what the Lady does has to do with concern for her own people. Raoul thinks that perhaps in the beginning she was at least concerned with her own legend. Apparently she always wanted to be the greatest leader the Kaze had ever known. But beyond that ambition all she knew was that she jealous of the last Lady. So when she began to show signs of weakness, when she tried to introduce jutsu to the Kaze, the Lady seized her time to strike. Many people were afraid of what jutsu might bring to the Kaze, so they backed her."

"We've become exactly what we've feared: a people lost in evil, unable to do the things that made us respected in the first place. We're no better than a street gang in a fancy house."

"But all that is going to change now that Sora has returned!"

"What do you mean?" asked Hinata.

"Don't you see? She's finally returned after all of these years to come and save us! For years she has traveled around the West, ridding people of the Klesha. She became one of the greatest legends in the world! We were all worried that she was dead, but now I see that she was in fact just waiting to come back to where it all began; the place where she first started to train. It all comes full circle! Sora will vanquish the Lady and restore the Kaze to the glory it had at the time of her departure!"

Naruto and Hinata just stared at her. Sora as savior was not a concept that they were getting their minds around easily. Plus, Shivani has a couple of key points wrong. The Kaze was not the first place she had trained; she had been training her whole life. And Sora had definitely not been waiting around to rise and strike down the evil Lady. She had made it clear that her Klesha hunting days had ended when Yasu and Nori decided to settle down and get married. And Sora hadn't been expressing any intention to try and cause a revolution within the Kaze.

Naruto and Hinata looked at each other. Naruto rolled his eyes and turned back to Shivani, opening his mouth to speak. Hinata realized that if she didn't jump in quick, Naruto was going to deal with the issue in his typically direct, and sometimes completely insensitive, manner.

"Shivani," she started to say, and then realized that the girl was looking at Naruto with the same adoration that had previously been directed towards Sora.

"And she brought you!" Shivani said with so much worship in her voice that it stopped Hinata dead in her tracks.

"Huh?" Naruto said, taking a step back as Shivani was now leaning in rather close, stars in her eyes.

"Your Nanashi's son! You don't have to be shy about it, the whole palace knows about it now! Of course, a lot of people don't believe it, but I do!"

"Ah, well..." Naruto laughed awkwardly, sticking one hand behind his head. What was wrong with this girl?

Hinata knew exactly what was wrong. Suddenly she noticed that not only was Shivani's hair unbound, but she was wearing makeup as well, her eyes large dark and smudged. The fact that she was wearing a lanagha instead of her normal Kaze uniform went from an interesting side note to a key piece of information.

She could practically see the little hearts dancing around Shivani's head as the girl continued. "Even since I was a little girl, I've always known that Sora was part of my destiny. I've read everything I ever could about her, but somehow I missed the fact that she had a brother, one just a few years older than me!"

"Well, you know, we just met up again a few months ago," Naruto said, taking another step back.

"I saw the way you stood up to the Lady. It was wonderful!" She stepped forward

Naruto shrugged and took a step back. "She insulted my mother."

"She has done far worse and yet no one has stopped her." She stepped forward, eyes shimmering.

He nervously took another step back. What was WRONG with this girl? She started to take another step forward, but he waved his hands in front of him like a shield before leaping backwards. He pointed to a point on the ground in front of him. "Hey, hey, you stay back there!" he yelled. He didn't know what was going on, but he was stopping it right now.

Shivani's face fell as she stepped back. "I'm sorry, I just..." Her voice trailed off and she looked out the window towards the Lady's tower. "I wish..." All of a sudden she collapsed to her knees crying, tears flowing down the sides of her cheeks.

Naruto looked at Hinata, panicking. What did he DO?

Hinata was just as lost as he was. She could understand being a little upset by Naruto telling her to stay back, but not the wide-mouthed sobbing that Shivani was doing on the floor.

They looked at each other. "You're the girl," Naruto mouthed.

Hesitantly, Hinata headed over to the girl's side, kneeling down next to her and putting her arms around her shoulders. "It's okay. He didn't mean to sound so...harsh," she said. A second later, Shivani had latched herself onto Hinata and was crying into her shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said, crouching down in front of her. "I just couldn't figure out what the hell you were doing."

Shivani looked up at him through teary lashes. Her makeup had started to run, leaving dark streaks down her face. She hiccupped.

Hinata rubbed her back. The girl hiccupped again and then started to pull away, moving to sit cross-legged across from Hinata. She rubbed her eyes and nose with the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry, it's been a rough day," she said, sniffling slightly.

Hinata looked at her worriedly. She still wasn't convinced that all of these tears were just about Naruto. She reached across to cover one of Shivani's hands with her own. "What's wrong?" she asked, in the kind but firm voice that she had heard Yasu use with Miki.

Shivani took a deep breath. "It's not that I don't believe this is the right thing. I just wish things were different."

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked.

"I wish she had never become the Lady, I wish mother hadn't died, I wish she hadn't set things up the way they are, but..." she shook her head. "In the end, I suppose that the only thing that matters is that everything come out all right in the end."

Hinata smiled at her. "That's right."

"Yeah, yeah, that's the way to look at it," Naruto added.

Shivani smiled awkwardly at both of them. "Sora and my brother used to be friends when she lived here. Did you know that?"

They both shook their heads. There was something about the tone of her voice that was causing unease in both of their stomachs.

Shivani nodded. "They were. Nori was older then them, so they didn't hang out as much, but they were friends too. She said that you both know all your sets, so you should be able to pass that part of the test."

They nodded uneasily. They could pass the first part no problem, but they weren't sure about the second part.

Shivani sniffed and gave them a watery, forced smile. "Then everything is in place." She rose to her feet as if getting ready to leave.

"Huh? Ready for what?" Naruto asked.

She looked over her shoulder at him. "For the fall of the Lady and the rebirth of the Kaze. Sora has returned and the circle of fate is closing. Once all of you are members of the Kaze, everything will go back to the way it's supposed to be."

Naruto and Hinata looked at each other uneasily. This was definitely not what Sora had in mind. "We still have to pass the test," Hinata said uneasily.

"You will. You said you know all the sets."

"Well, there's still the fight to pass," Hinata reminded her.

But Shivani hadn't forgot. She smiled weakly at them. "Just remember that you only have to kill one of them. Once one is dead, the match is lost." She started to back towards the door. "Remember, you have to win. Once you do, everything will fall into place." They could see tears running down the sides of her face as she started to cry again, but before they could stop her she had run out the door.

Naruto stared after her blankly for a second, then growled in frustration. "What the hell is WRONG with that girl?" he yelled.

Hinata reached out to grab his hand. "I'm afraid that I know."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto banged the back of his head against the stone wall. "Shit!" he swore.

Although less inclined to express it that way, Hinata was feeling similarly. They thought they had the whole situation pieced together at this point.

At midnight they were going to start testing for their blacks. If they lost, they were executed. If they won, they were members of the Kaze, free to leave with Sora. However, in order to win, they were not only going to have to potentially reveal that Nori was alive, but also kill Shivani, who was convinced that they were saviors of some type, sent to save her clan. Her belief that she had everything worked out was so strong that she would let them kill her easily. However, her belief was based on an ideal about Sora that was completely off; their teacher had not come here to liberate the Kaze. If they killed her, chances were it wasn't going to do any good.

It looked hopeless. Lose and get killed, or essentially execute a young girl on false pretenses.

Damned if they did, damned if they didn't.

"What are we going to do?" Hinata whispered.

Naruto rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Are you sure she's the one we're going to fight?" he asked.

"Pretty sure." She shook her head. "The way she was crying..."

"She doesn't want to die," Naruto finished.

Hinata looked out at the shadow-less tower. "I think we have about 12 hours until the test. That gives us time to come up with a plan." She sighed. "If there IS a plan that can get us out of this."

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. "No," he said.

She looked up at him. "No what?"

"I refuse to believe that we're in some sort of dead end. There is a way out of this," he "stated stubbornly" stubbornly.

Hinata stared at him in awe for a second, and then smiled very slightly.

"You think so?" she asked, knowing what his answer would be, but needing the reassurance anyway.

"Of course! Come on, we'll have it figured out and still have time to get some sleep."

They started working on a plan.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Sora's plan was to run for it. She would wait, let them get through the sets and such, and then, in the middle of the fight when no one was expecting it, she would swoop down, pull them out of the fight, and they could all run. They would head up to the mountains; maybe stay at the monastery for a while and figure out where to go from there.

She stood next to Raoul in a small room overlooking the main courtyard. Her hands and feet were supposedly shackled, but she had put them on herself, allowing for her to easily open the locks. She looked around at the people sitting and standing both on the outer wall and around the edges of the courtyard below. She frowned; when she had been here, there had been at least three times as many warriors. The bitch had depleted her own numbers.

Sora wondered what it would have been like if all of this had never happened; if Nori's mother had stayed in power and she herself had stayed here, growing up to be a Kaze warrior instead of one half of the dGra Klesha.

She stopped herself. Hadn't she herself told Naruto not to think that way? It was just as easy to ask what would have happened if the clan she had been born into had never been killed, or if the son of a bitch who called himself her father had never taken her in. You can't change life once it happens.

But that didn't mean she couldn't wish that this hadn't happened to the Kaze.

Raoul leaned down to whisper in her ear. "You're going to wait until the middle of the fight?"

She nodded. "Hopefully at a point where they're winning; that way no one will be anticipating it."

"What changed your mind about escaping?"

"They might be willing to kill someone they think of as evil, but Shivani?" Sora shook her head. "Shivani's just too sweet. They know her as something more than an enemy at this point. They'd never be able to kill her."

"What if you're wrong?" he asked uncomfortably.

She shook her head. "Don't worry, those two would never kill just to pass some test."

Unspoken, the possibility neither of them wanted to think about floated through the air between them. No, they wouldn't kill to pass the test. But to save each other or to save her? That she wasn't certain of.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto and Hinata stood staring at the huge wood and iron doors that lead out into the courtyard.

In just a few minutes the doors would open and they would step out into the night to take the test. They had overheard the guards saying that every available member of the clan had come out to watch.

They looked at each other, and Naruto reached out to take her hand. She nodded, and looked away. They had a plan, but the chances of it working were slim to none. One slight change and people were going to start dying. One misstep, and everything could go horribly wrong.

Plus there was a very strong possibly that they simply weren't skilled enough to pull this off. There were ANBU level skills that they were going to have to use, and they were still genin.

Naruto looked down at his and Hinata's joined hands. Was this what it felt like to be acknowledged? To have people's lives in your hands because they trusted you?

And Naruto suddenly found that this was one of the few times in his life when he was actually afraid.

Hinata felt him stiffen, and squeezed his hand.

The doors began to open.

**Original Author's Notes**: Sorry for all of ya'll who expected the fight. Next chapter I promise.

TimeShifter suggested I put in a little about where I was coming up with the stuff for the Kaze. Basically, they are in India at this point. Unfortunately, I had my Naruto geography a little mixed up when I visualized it, but basically you can think of a huge mountain range that runs from Stone Country, down through the westernmost part of Sand. Think Himalayas, not Alps. Its like a huge buffer between the two lands and there isn't much contact between the two. Someone asked me why there were two such distinct languages between the East and West, and basically that's why.

Here's a key to a few terms I use.

Langha: the dress of a young woman, a long skit with a midriff baring blouse and a scarf of some sort, generally tucked into one side of the waist and then draped across the opposite shoulder.

Saree (also can be spelled sari): more of a married woman's dress. The same skirt and top, but this time a huge piece of material is pleated in front, draped around the body and over the shoulder. A lot of older Indian woman still wear these every day, even in the US.

Lassi: Not a dog, but a truly fabulous yogert drink, frequently made with mango.

Everything else is just more food. I'm going to put a few links to things in my profile, if you want to look at pictures.

Oh, and I forgot to thank those who pointed out that the Reifujin no Kaze does not mean Lady of the Wind, but rather the wife of the lord's cold. I really should have known better and if will be changed when I edit this darn thing.


	26. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

The numbers of the Kaze may have been depleted in Sora's mind, but in Naruto and Hinata's there were still plenty of them. The members lined the wall around the courtyard, sat on the edges of balconies, and stood in groups on top of the wall. Everyone was wearing either black or white, even the women who had opted to wear a saree or lanagha instead of their Kaze uniforms. They looked strange and foreign, reminding the pair just how far away from home they were. Red sashes blazed and heavy gold jewelry glittered.

But nothing flashed more than their eyes.

Naruto looked around, stunned. Somehow they had managed to plop themselves down into the middle of a clan-wide identity crisis. Everyone had realized that this fight was important; more so than if it had really just been about Sora's intentions while away or whether she had always meant to return. The reputation of the clan was at stake. Here were two fighters who had been trained by a woman who left the clan before the coup. They were going up against two who had been raised under the new regime. The potential implications of the outcomes of the fight were huge. Add that the woman who trained them was Sora, that the three had potentially come into contact with the old heir to the throne, and that Naruto was Nanashi's son, and you had a volatile situation.

It was like the first time they had entered the courtyard, just over twenty-four hours before, but magnified tenfold. Every pair of eyes was on them, watching them intensely, trying to figure out the potential of these two teenagers standing in front of them, looking slightly uncomfortable and out of place in the white uniform of a Kaze apprentice.

The guards flanking either side of them came to a halt in the middle of the courtyard. Stopping, Naruto and Hinata looked at them, and then back towards the Lady's tower. The doors at the top of the staircase leading towards the throne rooms were opening. From them emerged over two dozen Kaze guards, in what Hinata assumed were formal uniforms: black silk edged in gold and embroidered in wind-like swirls.

In the middle of them, being carried in an ornate gold chair, came the Lady of the Wind. She wore crimson, which stood out sharply against the sea of black uniforms that surrounded her. The silk of her saree draped around her and over her head in large, iridescent folds. The guards set the chair down, and the Lady stood to move to the edge of the dais before the stairs, silk spilling out behind her.

She lifted her chin and looked around the assembled clan. "We are the Kaze, the children of the Wind. We were gifted by the gods with the Shino-To-Be and Shino-Tsu-Hiko in order to be the guardians and protectors of the world in dark times of fear and chaos. This is our divine right and divine mission. Beyond the temporary come and go, our laws are those of righteousness. And we will defend it by any means necessary.

She gestured to Naruto and Hinata with a sweep of her hand. "Before us stand two who would test to prove that they possess the qualities of a Kaze; that they should be considered equals among us. They claim they know as much as those among our own ranks. They even wear the white uniforms that symbolize the purity of the young Kaze warrior."

Her face twisted into a sneer and her voice filled with icy contempt. "Personally, I cannot see any way that two people from the outside, trained by one who was part of a reign that was almost our demise, can possibly compete on the level of the purity of the Kaze today. However, though I am strong, I am not without mercy, and the laws handed down by our ancestors are clear. Therefore, I have decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata, you have come here to test to move from being an apprentice to being a full warrior under the House of the Kaze. Are you ready to begin your test?"

Hinata and Naruto both took deep breaths. "Yes," they said, almost as one.

"Then prepare to run through the basic sets. You will begin with the drum." She turned and regally walked back to her throne.

They looked at each other, silently wishing the other luck before turning and walking away from each other. They moved into the ready stance.

"Standard fighting sets, set one!" someone called out, and the drumming began.

They began with the protocols, bowing and meditating, before moving into opening stance and beginning the first set, a simple series of punches and kicks strung together with basic steps. When they finished, the man called out for set two and drumming began again.

They kept going through all the standard sets, until Hinata was called to perform the Shina-To-Be sets. Naruto stepped aside as Hinata moved into position to begin her sets. He could hear whispering in the crowd behind him.

"He's not going to know his sets. The girl might have been able to learn hers from Sora, but she never learned the Shino-Tzu-Hizo sets."

"He has to know them! They wouldn't agree to the test if he couldn't do it!"

"I'm not sure the Lady gave them a choice. Watch, as soon as he begins his sets, Sora will come swooping down and try to run off with them."

"Guys, look at the girl!" Naruto smiled at the awed voice as Hinata did a series of complicated kicking flips down the center of the courtyard. "Did you see the height she was getting on those!"

Someone scoffed at the comment, but Naruto didn't turn around to see whom. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean she's good in a fight."

"I don't know; she's fast, and her form is good."

"It doesn't matter anyway. He's not going to be able to do the Shino-Tsu-Hiko sets, and neither of them are going to be able to do the partner sets."

Naruto grinned to himself. They didn't have a clue what he and his Hina-chan could do.

Hinata finished her sets and moved off to the side to give him space to run his. Their eyes locked as she backed away and he advanced. This was the beginning; up until this point, it had simply been a matter of running through the sets, something they had been working on everyday for over a year. Everyone here expected them to know these sets.

But they weren't supposed to know the next.

The second that Naruto started running his, everyone in the courtyard was going to realize that someone other than Sora had taught them.

It was the point of no return. Up until here they could still just run. After this, they had to stick with the plan, no matter how difficult it seemed.

Hinata was hesitating. Her role was extremely difficult and her confidence wasn't high. It had only been by the barest of margins that Naruto had convinced her that she had even a remote chance of being able to pull her half off. Now she was once again balking slightly at what was going to be required of her.

She had always messed up on missions with her old team back in Konoha What was supposed to prevent her from messing up now?

She suddenly realized he was smiling at her, in a lopsided, here-goes-nothing kind of way that was so typical of him. If she hadn't known him as well as she did, she would have sworn that he wasn't really worried about anything at all. That this was just another training drill, one more time Nori or Sora was going to make him run his sets.

But she did know him, probably better than anyone ever had, and she knew that he hadn't been all that crazy about the plan either. He had viewed it as their only option, the only possible way to get out of a horrible situation. The only way out without killing someone.

And once he said he was going to do something, he didn't go back. He was going to give it everything he had, and so she was going to do the same.

She bit her lower lip, and nodded.

"Shino-Tsu-Hiko Standards; Set one!" A man yelled. The drum began. Naruto turned towards the top of the stairs where the Lady sat and bowed.

He began set one, parrying high and low before moving into a series of sweeps. Instantly the courtyard started to buzz with noise. Looking up at the Lady sitting in her golden chair, Hinata could see her face was pulled and her lips pressed together in rage. She obviously had intended for them to be disqualified here.

They had started in on dangerous ground.

Naruto finished set one and waited for the caller to announce the next set. However, before the man was able to do so, the Lady interrupted him.

"Who taught you those!" she demanded, fire flashing in her eyes.

Naruto looked up at her and grinned. "Sora," he said simply.

"Sora does not know the Shino-Tsu-Hiko sets! She is a Shino-To-Be fighter!" The woman glared down at him. She was large and furious and despite the pulled face and incompetence she had shown as a leader, it was easy to see why the Kaze had put their faith in her in the face of change.

Fortunately, Naruto was not easily intimidated. And Hinata had come up with the perfect way to deal with the question. He looked at her as if she was stupid. "If she doesn't know them, how could she teach them to us?" he asked.

Up in her small room, Sora repressed a grin. They couldn't have picked a better answer if she had told them what to say herself. It dumped the entire question straight into Sora's lap, making it impossible for the Lady to question what Naruto said. There was no way for them to contradict each other; whatever Sora said would apply to all of them. She could have learned them secretly before she left, or Nori could have taught them to her years ago, or she could have even learned them somewhere else. Whatever she said was going to be their story. And, at least for right now, she was inaccessible for questioning.

The Lady fumed and glared up at the window where Sora sat. Sora smiled and waved as best she could with her shackled hands. Take that, bitch!

One of the honor guards approached the Lady. "My Lady, may we continue?"

With one final glare at Sora, the Lady nodded, sitting back down in her chair, turning her attention back towards the boy standing alone in the middle of the courtyard. Her plans were unraveling. She had intended to end the test here; to never have them fight.

Still, what was the harm in having them fight? They wouldn't be able to win without jutsus, and would therefore be disqualified. Even supposing that by some miracle they were able to win, it was simply two more Kaze lost. She would even be rid of one who was rather troublesome. She would have the brats killed later on; she could say they tried to kill her and have them executed for treason.

If they were Kaze, she could do whatever she wanted to them. She was the Lady of the Wind, and the Kaze were hers to do with as she pleased. That was what she had gotten when she became the Lady of the Wind. That was why she has master-minded the coup.

But that didn't mean that she was going to let them win. It just meant that she had all of her bases covered. She smiled towards one of the towers as she watched Naruto move through the sets.

One needed a few tricks up one's sleeve to stay on top. And if there was one thing she intended to do, it was stay on top.

The buzz in the courtyard continued to grow with every set that Naruto completed. And when Hinata moved out to join him in the partner sets, the Kaze stopped whispering.

"Did you see that! They're halfway through the partner sets and still haven't messed up!"

"The Lady's right, Sora didn't learn these before she left! It was impossible to get her to work with anyone! Who could have possibly..."

"Nori, it's the only explanation. No one ever received conformation of his death. He must still be alive somewhere and taught them."

"Maybe he's coming back," someone said hopefully. "Maybe he wants to return to become the Lord!"

Naruto gritted his teeth as he turned so that Hinata could move past him before going to the ground in a sweep. First Shivani and Sora, and now the rest of the Kaze and Nori. If the damn Kaze wanted to get rid of the Lady, then they should just get rid of the Lady, not wait until some sort of savior came and rescued them.

The drumming continued and Naruto and Hinata worked through their sets, until finally it was over.

They stood side by side in the center of the courtyard, fighting to control their breathing. It took over six hours to run all 36 of the sets; fifteen of the basic, and seven more of each specific type. Despite how frequently they had been practicing the sets, it still took a lot of energy to get through them all. And they still had the fight in front of them.

The Lady glared at them, but she did not appear to be as rattled as they had expected. Or as rattled as they had hoped.

Oh, how she wished she could have disqualified them on something, but everyone had seen how well they had done. But it didn't really matter. She still had the situation completely under control.

She stood up and walked to the edge of the dais. "You have successfully completed the first part of the test, proving your knowledge in the basics. Now you must complete the second, and prove your ability to apply them." She gestured to her right with one hand, and from behind the honor guard stepped Shivani and her partner.

The man was obviously older than Shivani by several years, broad-shouldered and muscular. He dwarfed the girl standing next to him, glaring at them with hard eyes buried in sharp features. Next to him, Shivani shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, staring at the ground a few feet in front of her. Hinata looked at her as her eyes flicked up and down. Shivani was steeling herself, Hinata realized. Readying herself to be killed for the good of her clan.

The Lady looked back at Naruto and Hinata quickly and sneered slightly before turning back to the pair of fighters standing by her side. "Araksaka Shivani and Gupta Toril, you have been brought here today to prove yourselves deserving of your rank as warriors of the Kaze. Before you stand two who think they are good enough to pass into your ranks. Either you remain among our ranks, or you give up your places to them in death."

"Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata, the only way into the ranks of Kaze warriors is though these two. You must prove yourself worthy of taking their places by killing them in battle while maintaining the purity of the Kaze. This means you shall use no ninjutsu, no genjutsu, and should either of you be polluted by a bloodlimit, you may not use that either."

Hinata sucked in her breath sharply. They hadn't thought they would be able to get away with using her bloodlimit, but oh, how she had hoped. Executing the plan without it was only going to be that much harder.

The Lady smiled. "And let me just clarify that if I feel you are doing anything that would compromise the purity of the Kaze I will disqualify you immediately. Anything bizarre and you are out." She turned with a sweep of her saree. "Fighters take your places!" she called out over her shoulder, returning to her chair.

Naruto and Hinata turned and moved to the back of the courtyard as Shivani and Toril started to come down the stairs.

"It'll be just fine, Hina-chan," Naruto whispered reassuringly.

She was shaking ever so slightly, suddenly looking more like the little girl who left Konoha than she had in months; she was even staring at her hands as they walked and pushing her index fingers together, an old gesture he hadn't seen her do in months. She was strong; he knew she was! But somehow she was starting to forget.

She started when he put his hand on her bare arm, just above her elbow. She looked up at him with wide eyes. She was terribly, terribly afraid that she was going to mess up.

"Hey, hey", there's nothing to worry about!"

"I can't do this!" she whispered harshly, so low that Naruto was barely able to hear her.

"Of course you can!" he said back, but his insides were twisting into huge knots. It was going to take a miracle for them to pull it off, but damn it, they were going to do it! He didn't care how far-fetched it was!

"I always mess up on missions!"

"You're not going to mess up on this one!"

"I'm going to get us both killed!"

"You are not going to get us both killed!"

"I'm going to kill her!"

"You're not going to kill her!"

She looked at the Kaze, who were staring at them doubtfully. They had made it through the first part of the test, and now she was falling apart. The tide of public opinion among the Kaze had turned, and they were now looking at them like some sort of joke. Sure, they had done the sets perfectly, but standing there in white uniforms, now rumpled and stained with sweat, they looked like nothing more than a pair of teenagers.

Her breath started to come faster. She was on the verge of panicking.

"Hinata!" Naruto's voice cut through the haze and she found herself staring into two large blue eyes, her face held in place on either side by his hands. Everything about both of them was tense, but when he spoke, it was in the off-hand manner he usually used. "Come on, Hina-chan! You're going to be the best head in the history of the Hyuuga clan, and I'm going to be the greatest Hokage ever. ! We can handle this, no sweat!"

She didn't understand. How could he be so certain about things that they had yet to do? How could he say these things when there was always the possibility that they would fail? She knew he understood how remote of a possibility it was that everything would work out the way they wanted. Why didn't that frighten him as much as it frightened her? Knowing how much she messed up, how could he have faith in her?

"Hina-chan," he said, leaning down to touch his forehead to hers. Her heart pounded in her throat. "You're being silly. You're not the same person you were when we left Konoha."

And that, she realized, was the crux of it all. She wasn't back home. She wasn't with her clan; she wasn't even in Konoha. She was here with him. And he had seemingly unshakable faith in the two of them.

So how could she not have it as well?

She squeezed here eyes tightly shut and when she opened them, Naruto was relieved to see that the fear had been driven away. She smiled up at him, slightly. "We did say we were going to win this, didn't we?"

He smiled, relieved that she had pulled her self back together. "And we don't take back our words."

"You ready?" she asked quietly, but there was a caged energy behind it that had been missing before.

He grinned down at her. "Let's get wild."

They turned to face forward. Toril sneered at them. He leaned down slightly to talk into Shivani's ear. "Look at the idiots. They're scared out of their skins. This will be a piece of cake. Even you should be able to handle the girl; it looks like she's going to fall apart. Just don't do anything stupid."

Shivani sighed and nodded. She suspected that Toril would run once she was dead; he wasn't the sort of guy to kill himself for his so-called "honor". He tended to be temperamental, rash, and rather self-serving. He had thrown a fit when he had been partnered with her, and Shivani had suspected that her brother had threatened him before he finally agreed.

"Warriors, are you ready?" a voice called out. Shivani and Toril nodded.

"Challengers, are you ready?" Naruto and Hinata took a quick glace at each other and nodded.

"Begin!"

Toril immediately rushed Naruto and Hinata, leaving Shivani trailing behind him. Naruto started his own charge, while Hinata swept out to the side. The two men met in a clash in the center, neither of them getting through the others defenses, the blows they were throwing not really landing.

Hinata came in from the side, headed for Shivani. The girl went into a low crouching stance, waiting for her. Naruto spotted her coming in and grinned.

Shivani put one hand on the ground, ready to throw a tundic kick at her. After all, she had to make it at least look like she was trying to win. She was expecting Hinata to come in straight, but instead, she jumped into the air at an angle that would not have her coming down on top of Shivani, but on top of Toril.

But Toril must have sensed something behind him, because all of a sudden he shoved Naruto away and whipped around and out of the way. As Hinata came down next to him instead of on top, Toril kicked her in the side. With no ground beneath her feet to steady herself with, she went flying across the ground, nearly landing in the crowd.

"Hina-chan!" Naruto yelled as he ran over to her side.

Toril turned to glare at Shivani. "You're supposed to watch my back!"

She looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, I thought she was-"

"It doesn't matter what you think! I don't have the energy to baby-sit you!" He turned back to where his opponents were getting to their feet.

"Are you all right?" Naruto asked Hinata.

"Yeah, just a little shaken up," she replied, dusting the dirt off the front of her white pants.

Naruto stared hard at Toril. It was unreasonable, he knew, to hate a man for kicking his girlfriend in a fight where they were supposedly trying to kill him. He could hardly blame the man for defending himself when Hinata attacked him. Hinata wasn't even really hurt. However, Naruto was going to be damned if he didn't do everything he could in order to keep him from laying a hand on her again.

He stood up, hands clenched at his sides, and stared angrily at Toril. The man sneered back at him.

Naruto had to remind himself not to start summoning shadow clones or whip some chakra into a Rasengan, but he managed to reign himself in. But he wanted to throw everything he had at this man so badly.

He approached again, coming in at an angle that indicated that he was headed towards Shivani, before making a last minute turn to clip kick at Toril. Toril managed to block the kick, but not the fist that snaked its way mysteriously into his gut. He wheezed and staggered back a step.

On her dais, the Lady frowned. The two outlanders had proven themselves to actually be good at fighting, and so far they hadn't even look tempted to resort to ninjutsu. At this rate, it was highly possible they would win. Time to put things a little more off balance. She looked up at one of the towers. There was a flash of light from a window, as if someone was bouncing sunlight off a mirror. The Lady nodded and the light flashed twice more.

Up in her room overlooking the courtyard, Sora quietly slipped out of her shackles. It was a little earlier than she has intended to come make her save, but if the Lady was using jutsu, she needed to get in there before either of the kids got hurt. They weren't going to be able to run very fast if they were injured.

"You going?" Nori asked.

She turned to look at him and smiled. "Gotta get out of here before things get too rough. You wanna come?"

He smiled sadly back at her and shook his head. "I still have hope that we'll turn around sometime. This is my home; these are my people and I cannot abandon them."

She shrugged. "Your funeral. But if you could keep the confusion high until we get out of the walls, I'd appreciate it."

"I'll do my best."

"Alright, let's get the party started!" Sora shouted. She moved to put her foot up on the windowsill.

And found there was a wall where she wanted to put her foot.

"What the...?" She reached out with her hand and it stopped halfway through the opening". Frustrated, she growled, pulled back, and jammed her hand towards it again. It stopped in the exact same place.

Shit.

She turned and ran to the door, pulling on the handle. It was more than locked, it was sealed shut.

"Goddamn it!" she yelled, jamming her hands together and running through a series of seals. "Levels Scan no Jutsu!"

"We're locked in?" Nori asked.

"No we're not locked in, we're sealed in you idiot! Aw, damn it!" Whoever had put this up, they were good. It was a nice strong seal, one that was going to take a while for her to break down.

"But who could have put it up?"

"Looks like your Lady isn't so pure!"

He glared at her, biting his tongue to keep from rising to her bait and say he knew that.

She performed a few more seals and then slammed her hands flat into the seal on the window, pumping chakra into it. The air rippled out from her hands, the invisible wall bending under the force of her attack. But when she pulled back, she had barely made a dent in it.

"Damn it!" she cursed under her breath. She ran her hands through the seals and then slammed her hands into the barrier again.

Down in the courtyard, Naruto and Hinata worked to split Toril and Shivani up. They needed to separate them so that no one would be able to see what Hinata was going to do. They were easily holding their own, and wearing the opposition down, but they hadn't managed to get into a good position to execute the plan yet.

Unfortunately, while Toril might not have been aware of the fact that Shivani was planning on letting herself be killed, he was aware of the fact that he was a superior fighter, and that her death was essentially his. He was watching her like a hawk, constantly standing in front of her and guarding her from harm. It would have been sweet, IF he hadn't been doing it for such obviously selfish reasons.

Hinata stood halfway behind Naruto, waiting for him to start the attack. The idea was to blitzkrieg Toril while Hinata slipped past and took out Shivani. She dropped her breathing and focused on the girl in front of her. She knew this part; she could do this.

Naruto rushed in towards Toril, sliding up under his parry in order to grab him around the neck, bringing his leg back seemingly to knee him in the stomach. Toril shifted his weight back and prepared to throw Naruto off, only to find that instead of kneeing him, Naruto had jumped in the air. Just as Naruto's feet left the ground, Hinata spun down and swept her leg under Toril's feet, sending him crashing to the ground with Naruto on top of him, ready to drive an elbow down his face.

Spinning up to a standing position, Hinata turned towards Shivani. Her hands were up in a guard and her eyes were wide. She threw a kick that they both knew was pulled, and Hinata slipped through her guard. Praying that she hit the right spots, Hinata struck the chakra holes in Shivani's forearms. Instantly, the girl's hands went limp from the elbow down.

Hinata did a large turning step out of Shivani's range. Glancing over at Naruto, she saw him duck under Toril's arm, plant one foot behind him, and slam his hand into his throat, sweeping him to the ground.

Good, she had time to make one more pass. She turned back to Shivani, who was staring down at her arms in awe. She swung her arms back and forth slightly at the elbows, almost hypnotized by the motion. Hinata again started her approach in, and this time Shivani just stared at her. She was about to go to work on the girl's shoulders when something stopped her.

Naruto slammed his foot into Toril's ribs and was about to wrap his arm around his knee and break his elbow when the boy slithered out from his grasp. Toril sprung up onto his hands and flipped away out of range.

"Damn it!" Naruto said. He had to keep him busy before he could go over and protect Shivani. He saw an opening and moved to deliver a nice solid kick to Toril's ribs.

And then suddenly Naruto felt his body being pulled in different directions by invisible forces. The light in his eyes started to pixilate into different colors and the edges to everything became fuzzy. His body was fighting to move the way it wanted as invisible forces pushed and pulled on his body.

The breath was knocked out of him when Toril landed a solid kick to his solar plexus. He gasped for air and went spinning across the courtyard floor. Toril smirked and went after him. Naruto looked up and was able to catch a vague sense of movement before a hand reached down and tossed him into the air. A series of devastating blows landed all over his torso before he once again landed on the ground with a loud thud.

Naruto planted his palms on the ground and started to push himself up. "Damn it, you're using genjutsu!"

Toril drew himself up as if he was highly offended. "I would never think of using jutsu!" he yelled.

"Damn it!" Naruto growled. "I know what genjutsu feels like and that was genjutsu!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Toril.

The man turned to the front of the courtyard. "My Lady, I swear to you that I have not done what this idiot accuses me of. I would never do anything that would corrupt the Kaze in such a manner!" There was a false, rehearsed quality to his speech, as if he had been told what to say.

The Lady smiled. "And I believe you." She turned her head to glare at Naruto. "You will not make false accusations towards those who serve the Kaze loyally! The fight will continue and there will be no more attempts on your part to shift the blame for your poor performance!"

"I'm not shifting the blame, you stupid old hag! I'm telling you he's cheating!"

"That's enough! If I hear one more word out of you the fight is over and you and your partner will be executed. Begin!"

He looked over at where Hinata was standing. She looked at him and nodded. She had felt the jutsu too.

Anger started rushing through him. His hands balled in fists of rage on either side. They had made the rules and now they weren't even playing by them, damn it! Something inside him began to uncoil.

Screw the Kaze! Screw the plan! They were about so see how the Kaze felt about being outnumbered two to one by Narutos!

He was about to lift his hands to start the seal, when a pair of arms slipped around his waist and a small person pressed herself into his back.

"Don't," Hinata whispered.

Suddenly, it was as if all of the anger simply drained out of him, leaving only frustration and a bit of sorrow. He laid one of his hands over hers.

He couldn't rage. They needed to move forward with the plan, no matter how impossible it seemed now. He couldn't take off like a loose cannon just because he was angry. It had been one of Nori and Sora's most drilled points. He had to maintain a degree of control over his emotions; not to suppress them, but to channel them in something else.

Naruto frowned. Something had sparked a memory.

"There's one part of the Kaze training that I think you should start thinking about."

"Huh? Nani?" Naruto asked in confusion. Why would he have to think about it? Why wouldn't he just do it?

"Beyond the forms, Shino-To-Be and Shino-Tsu-Hiko have what are referred to as principles. Once you've mastered the forms, you move into a place where the actual punches and strikes you use aren't where your focus is going. They happen automatically. Instead you are looking towards a, well, almost a feeling. There's the principle of engulfing, the principle of disorientation, the principle of devastation, and a half a dozen more."

"So you want me to start thinking about these principle things?"

"Well, we'll be starting you off really early, and there's a limited amount I can teach you because I left before I could get much, but I think it's important to get you started."

"Why?"

Nori smiled. "Because before you can learn the nine principles, you have to learn intention. And I've never met someone who could be as intent on doing something as you."

While he and Nori had played around with the idea occasionally, he had never even come close to being able to using the principle. Focus had never been his strong point. But standing in the middle of the courtyard with Hinata's arms wrapped around him it was suddenly easy. He needed to buy Hinata time. But instead of trying to hit Toril, he needed to beat him.

"I got it Hina-chan," he said, and she could tell from the tone in his voice that he was okay again. She squeezed him once and then let her arms slide from around his waist.

He turned to grin at her over his shoulder. She blinked and then smiled back.

Turning back towards Toril, Naruto breathed in deeply and started to gather chakra in his core, pulling it around the spiral in his stomach and into a tight ball. With every breath he took, he drew the chakra tighter and stronger, pulling it around and around his center.

Ten breaths. Then focus on the goal.

He stared at Toril, while the man sneered. "What are you, an idiot?" he asked.

But the elder Kaze in the audience had gone completely silent.

Set your intention.

He wasn't going to let Toril anywhere near Hinata. He was going to overwhelm him so much that he wouldn't even be able to think about what was happening to him.

Let the chakra unwind and go.

With a sound that was halfway between a scream and a yell, Naruto ran at Toril. The man stood there in shock. The difference in the energy was almost palpable. Even though the attacks were the same, the moves he were using no different than before, the feeling was like night and day.

And Toril had no idea what to do.

Everyone in the courtyard was able to feel it, and while the younger members were looking at each other in confusion trying to figure out what was going on, the older ones were staring in dumb shock. They watched as one of their best young fighters fell helplessly under Naruto's blows, unable to even really block them effectively.

The Lady shook.

Up in the room, Sora was trying to figure out what was going on and why there was suddenly so much commotion in the crowds. "What the hell is he doing?" she asked.

Raoul just stared. "Intention," he whispered.

"What?" Sora asked.

"Intention. Dear god, he's using intention."

Sora crossed her arms and glared at him. "You wanna stop babbling like a mad man and tell me what the hell you're talking about?"

"It's the first of the principles; the ways to harness chakra that the Kaze developed. The idea was that you focused your chakra behind a certain principle and then it sort of takes over you and guides you towards success. Intention was the first one you had to master before moving on to the others."

"Wait, he's going to surrender control to his chakra?"

"Well, he sets an intention and directs himself completely towards the intention."

"Isn't that just being focused?"

"Sort of, but you focus on the intention of your actions and not the actions themselves. You let your chakra take over that part."

Sora stared at him briefly before running her hands through her hair and cursing. Letting the chakra take over? How the hell could this be a good idea for a boy with the chakra of a demon fox coursing through his veins? What the hell had Nori been thinking?!

"Aw, shit! Well this is just great!"

"Sora, I don't think you understand."

"Sure I do; Nori the idiot is trying to push the boy farther than he's ready to go!"

"Well, from the looks of things, he's ready. Nothing happens if you try to use intention and you aren't skilled enough."

Sora snorted. Sure, nothing happened to people WITHOUT a nine-tailed demon fox sealed inside them, but what the hell was going to happen to her brother!

"I'm going to bust out of here, and when I do, I'm going to take them back home and I am going to give that Nori a piece of my mind before I get Yasu to help me pound him into the ground!" She furiously started pumping more chakra into the barrier.

"Sora!"

"WHAT?"

"We can't do it anymore!"

"Can't do what?"

"Use the principles! We lost them."

"Wait, back up; what are you saying?"

Nori sighed. "Once the revolution happened and the current Lady took the throne, the principles started slipping away. I haven't seen anyone use them in years. The Lady says it's because we lacked the purity the principle of intention requires."

"You mean all those things that you used to be able to do, the things that you lost, these principles; my brother is out there doing them right now!"

He nodded. "I don't know what will happen now."

Toril stumbled back under Naruto's assault. The strikes were coming too fast for him to parry them all, and too fast for him to really return with his own offense. They were one hell of a distraction.

And that was exactly what Hinata needed.

Hinata prepared to make her final pass towards Shivani. Her heart pounded in her ears like a drumbeat, drowning out all other sounds.

This was it. She couldn't slowly take Shivani down; Toril and the jutsu together weren't giving her the chance. She had to hit the main holes now. The idea was similar to that of the 64 Hands of Hakke all the holes would be sealed and she would be unable to move her body. Hinata had been doing it in stages, in hopes that by the time she started on the dangerous ones, Shivani would be immobile enough to keep her from messing up her aim. The girl was cooperating with her strikes, but she didn't understand the precision Hinata needed. She had to hit all of the holes just right.

And she had to do it without being able to actual see where they were. She was relying on pure training and instinct to guide the ends of her fingers to the points. However, with the Gentle Fist style, missing wasn't a question of not having an effect on your target.

Unless she hit this just right, Shivani wasn't going to collapse like Naruto had in the Chuunin exam. Closing the holes put a person out for a while until the chakra levels naturally built up enough to re-open themselves. However, hits to the organs would do serious damage. It had taken Hinata months to recover from her fight with Neji.

And if things went too wrong, Hinata would kill her. Which, while it was Shivani was expecting, was not what Hinata wanted to do.

As Hinata rushed forward, Shivani closed her eyes, preparing herself for death. She started to throw a parry that they both knew would be too late. Everything was lined up perfectly.

Then she felt a pull on her back, as if an invisible hand was pulling her hips and her shoulders in opposite directions. The light in her eyes went bright and then fragmented into a million spots of color.

She screwed her eyes shut and reached in blindly to try and partially seal the final holes.

The jutsu released and she stumbled past Shivani, her over-extension making her tumble to the ground. She quickly turned to look over her shoulder at Shivani. Naruto and Toril stopped in mid-punch to stare.

The crowed hushed. Eyes went wide.

Sora stopped trying to take down the barrier and simply stared. She and Raoul were both white as ghosts, gaping at the scene before them.

"No," Raoul whispered.

Shivani lay in a crumpled heap on the ground.

She did not move.

She did not breathe.

Slowly, one of the Kaze doctors approached the ground where Hinata still stood by Shivani's body. Bending down on one knee, he picked up her hand and pressed his fingers to the inside of her wrist. He shook his head.

"She's dead."

**Original Author's Notes**: This was a complicated chapter and I hope everything made sense to everyone, as I have had a few complaints about that in the last few chapters. I tried to make it as clear as possible, especially the concept of the principles and intention. I thought that they fit in rather well with Naruto's personality and strengths, so I wanted to include them, even if they were a bit different from most of the other techniques. Still, I figured that considering that they're sort of doing the classical "go off and train in a foreign land" martial arts movie motif, a little bit of martial arts woo-woo stuff was in order.

Just a quick note on the Kaze. You can think of their ranks as corresponding with the standard ninja ranks. Naruto and Hinata are considered apprentices which are like Genin. They are testing to be full warriors like Shivani and Toril, who would be considered Chuunin. Raoul is an advanced warrior or a Jounin. Beyond that there would be specializations just like in Leaf.

TS – I have a few comments to add here. First, I'd also like to apologize for this chapter taking so long. As Wren said, we've been busy. I've been working on my Eagle Project for Boy Scouts, which basically consists of planning out a project that benefits the community, and carrying it out; it should be at least 100 hours long (if anyone helps out, their hours count as yours), and I'm currently over 120. These past two weekends have been work weekends, and I gained 80 hours, so I've been SLIGHTLY occupied. Now, my weekends should involve more free time. Anyway, sorry it took so long, but you gotta admit, this was a GREAT chapter!

Speaking of length records, when Wren sent me this chapter, it was 7,312 words. With my edits, and this E/N (Editor's Notes), it became 8,408 words. Yes, not only did I read this through twice to make sure I didn't miss anything, I added 1,096 words of my own. Obviously, once Wren makes the corrections I pointed out, it'll probably be around 7,500, but I spent a LOT of time editing this, and Wren spent even more writing it, so I hope you guys appreciate this chapter!

I'd also like to point out that Naruto was just beating Toril quite easily, who's "one of their best young fighters", and Hinata took out Shivani, both of who are full warriors in the Kaze. From the description above, that means they just defeated two people strong enough to be Chunnins. This gives you an idea of how much they've grown, and with just taijutsu (although technically Hinata used the Gentle Fist). Also, I want to point out how much I LOVED the whole "principle of intention" thing! That was great, although I was a little confused. Let's see if I can simplify this. Basically, you focus on the goal you want to accomplish, and focus so that it's your only intention, and use your chakra to guide you? So you focus on what you want to do, and your chakra leads your body in order to accomplish whatever it is you want to do? But it only works if you have a strong intent? If I'm right, isn't that not technically taijutsu, and more of a ninjutsu, if anything? Well Wren, am I right? (Wren- It's a taijutsu technique inspired by old martial arts movies). Actually, I'm probably not; since the Kaze developed the principles, and disapproved of ninjutsu, they probably don't count it as such. Anyway, I, for one, LOVED this chapter; it was one of the best! Do you guys agree?

P.S. – If you're one of those people who likes to point out spelling errors, yes, I'm aware woo-woo isn't a real word. (Wren- well, it should be).


	27. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

There was complete silence in the courtyard.

Hinata stared hard at Shivani, trying hard to see if there was any sign of life coming from the girl. But she simply lay lifeless on the ground.

She collapsed back onto the ground, crying hard into her folded arms. She felt strong arms pick her up and pull her against him. She wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck and continued to sob into his chest.

"Hina-chan, sweetheart, you don't know if you killed her!" Naruto whispered in her ear.

"There's no way!" she sobbed. "With the genjutsu, I couldn't see anything! I missed and I killed her!" She was crying so hard that she had given herself the hiccups, and now she was making a funny choking sound every few seconds.

Up in the tower, Raoul had pressed his hands and face to the sealed window, staring out at his sister's lifeless form. He shook from head to toe as he watched the doctors began to arrange his sister's body, laying her on her back and folding her arms across her chest. There was a constant stream of words flowing out of his mouth in a harsh whisper. "No, no it couldn't be; there's no way they would; there's no way that the gods would permit it; she has to be, she just HAS to be..."

On the dais, the Lady looked down in distain at the scene before her. Well, there went one annoyance gone. Now she just had to deal with the other ones. She stood up and went to the end of the platform.

"Do we have confirmation of Shivani's death?" she asked.

The medics nodded. "There's no pulse, my Lady, and she is not breathing."

"Try to revive her! Why isn't anyone trying to revive her!" Raoul yelled, banging his hands against the seal. But as no one even turned and looked his way, he realized that the sound was sealed in with them.

The Lady nodded, the turned to a member of the Honor Guard and held out her hand. The man stared at her as if he couldn't believe what she was doing. She raised one eyebrow at him. His eyes narrowed in turn, and from behind his back he took a sheathed knife, which he placed remove in her outstretched palm. She smirked before turning back to the crowd.

She raised her arms up, holding the knife in the air. "Gupta Toril, you have failed your partner, and she is now dead. Kaze laws and your family's honor demand that you make the same sacrifice she did." She threw the knife down to him.

It clattered at his feet. Toril stared at the knife, and then up at the man who had given it to the Lady. "Father?" he whispered. The man continued to stare down at him with empty eyes.

Naruto and Hinata stared up in shock. He was supposed to kill himself NOW?

Suddenly, Toril's gaze turned from shocked to furious. "No," he said, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

There was a gasp from the crowd and a sudden burst of whispers. Sitting on the ground, still in each others' arms, Naruto and Hinata looked on in a mixture of shock and amazement.

The Lady's eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"

Toril gestured to Shivani's corpse, still laying on the ground, but now covered in a white shroud. "I'm not going to kill myself just because that little bitch is dead!"

Anger surged through Naruto. "Hey!" he started, but he wasn't given the chance to continue.

The Lady of the Wind did not tolerate disobedience. And while she wanted to deal with Sora and her brats, preventing an uprising always took priority. "Guards! Execute him!" she shouted, pointing towards Toril. The Honor Guard immediately started down the steps, as the Lady turned back towards her chair.

"You were the one who said you had made it so I couldn't lose!" Toril yelled. Everything in the courtyard, including the Lady, froze. It was an accusation no one had dared to make in public before. "You said that they probably wouldn't even make it to the fighting, but even if they did, you had a secret that would keep me safe. You told me I would be accused of using jutsu, and you said you would support me when I denied it!"

Slowly, the Lady turned around to face the crowd, her eyes murderous. "Do not further shame your family with these lies! Accept your fate!"

Toril's face twisted in anger and he started running up the stairs at her, moving in a blur. "You miserable bitch!" he yelled as he threw himself at her, only to be caught by the other guards before he was able to touch her. "We've kept your fucking secrets for twelve years, and now you repay us like this! Who has been the one poisoning your enemies? Who has been out recruiting your ninjutsu users? You have certainly not dirtied your hands with that yourself!" His arms had been pulled behind his back as he was half carried, half dragged down the stairs by his father and fellow guards. "You promised that if I killed Shivani and Raoul, you would make me the Captain of the Guards. I should have known you would betray me!"

"Lies will not save you now, especially not ones as outrageous and slanderous as these," the Lady said, settling herself back into her throne.

"I was promised power! I was promised command! And I did everything you asked of me! I put up with having that stupid bitch as a partner! And every time you broke your promise, you said that it was just a matter of time! Time until I was old enough, time until you could figure out a way to poison Shivani! I suppose that in the end it was just a matter of time before you betrayed me!"

A number of the Honor Guard shifted uncomfortably in their places, daring to shoot glances at the Lady sitting there on her throne.

"Guards, execute him!"

But the guards hesitated. Whispers ran through the crowd, and Toril laughed. He could feel the support of the crowd swaying away from the Lady and towards him.

"I'm beginning to see some things a little clearer. Tell me, my lady, how many people have you promised to make Captain of the Guard?"

"Execute him!" the Lady yelled, pushing herself to her feet.

Again the man laughed. "You think I'm going to let myself be killed for you? After all you have done to me! After all you have done to us!" he asked incredulously, gesturing to the crowd around him.

"I don't think they have a choice!" the Lady yelled. "Guards! I gave you an order!" She looked wild and slightly crazy.

But the guards did not move. Apparently, the man's words had hit home. And, apparently, he saw this as the opportunity to seize the power he had been promised.

He pointed an accusatory finger at the Lady. "Twelve years ago this woman said she was going to save the Kaze from the corruption that the last Lady had brought upon us! However, while we have been wasting away, losing our power and influence, she has been playing us like puppets!"

He brought his hands to his chest and looked around the gathered Kaze. "We have all suffered under her lies! Now is the time to get rid of her!"

"And who would take her place? YOU?" one woman cried out. Hinata recognized her as Charu, the woman Sora had fought in the city.

Toril bowed humbly. "Should that be the wishes of the Kaze, I, as the one who finally exposed the wrongdoing of the Lady, would be honored to take the throne."

She snorted. "I seriously doubt that we would be stupid enough to put you, who just admitted to doing all of the Lady's dirty work, into power. Besides, we need a strong leader, and you just got trounced by a couple of outsiders."

"One of those outsiders just used intention," one elderly lady pointed out. "We should not overlook the chance to regain what we have lost."

"So you would make someone who wasn't even a Kaze the Lord of the Wind!" Charu asked incredulously. Naruto looked at both of them in shock. What the hell were they talking about! He didn't want to be the Lord of the Wind!

The old woman fixed her with an icy stare. "I believe he just proved himself to be more Kaze then most of us, including you, Charu."

"But what about Sora?" another woman said. "It cannot be doubted that she came back to save us! If they know intention, then she must have been the one to teach it to them."

"No! There's no way a mercenary could learn how to use intention," said one of the Honor Guards, shaking his head. "Nori must still be out there."

"Then he should return and be Lord!" yelled another man.

"I am STILL the ruler here!" cried the Lady. "I will NOT be dethroned by some lying child! I have done none of the things he has accused me of!"

Toril just pointed up to one of the towers. "The jutsu users are there," he said.

The Lady paled, as if it had never occurred to her that she could be so easily exposed. Several of the Kaze started running towards the tower, only to watch as two men in long dark coats with high collars emerged from one of the windows, moving up onto the roof before jumping hundreds of feet down onto the ground.

"There!" Toril yelled. "That's proof enough!"

"I have no idea who those men were!" the Lady said frantically. "You obviously planted them! You are trying to overthrow and discredit me!"

"It isn't hard to discredit someone who is so corrupt!" Toril said.

"No more corrupt than you!" Charu yelled back.

"Are you saying that you support the Lady staying in power?"

"I'm saying I don't trust you!"

Naruto sat on the ground, still cradling the crying Hinata in his arms. But even though he held her gently, inside he was getting madder and madder. What the hell was their problem?

"We should get the boy to talk and tell us about the intention before we do anything," said the old woman.

"He must have learned it from Nori!" said another man. "He's the rightful heir to the throne. He must have sent them to pave the way for his return!"

"He left us! There is no reason why we should welcome his return!"

"Sora is the one who came back! She's one of the most well respected women in the West and now she has returned!"

And instantly the entire courtyard was once again filled with the sounds of arguing Kaze, each yelling who they thought the next ruler should be. Naruto looked around at the crowd, shaking his head and gritting his teeth. Suddenly, he felt Hinata slip away from his grasp, and, as he watched, she moved to sit at Shivani's side, taking one of the girl's hands in both of her own. She dropped her head to her chest and burst into fresh sobs.

It was almost more than Naruto's heart could handle. This wasn't the way the plan was supposed to go. Instead of knocking Shivani out, Hinata had apparently killed the girl. They thought they would be able to get out and reveal that Shivani was alive before Toril was asked to kill himself. They thought there would be a period of time where they wouldn't be under guard, when they would be considered members of the Kaze, where they could get Shivani out of the House. What she was going to do once she was separated from the Kaze, they weren't sure, but it still seemed like the best option.

But now she was dead, and instead of having a calm, unguarded moment in which to sneak out, they were in the middle of a screaming match between all the Kaze.

Damn it! He shouldn't have pushed the plan on Hinata. She had told him that she couldn't do it; that there was no way for her to knock out Shivani without using her bloodlimit, but he hadn't listened. And now both Shivani and Hinata were paying the price.

Anger bubbled up inside him as he watched Hinata cry over Shivani. Didn't the Kaze understand? Didn't they know that Shivani had died because she thought that it would save the rest of the clan? Why didn't other people see things that were so obvious to him?

"You guys are a bunch of stupid idiots!" Naruto finally yelled.

The crowd gasped and turned around to look at him. He hauled himself to his feet, glaring at the crowd.

"Look at her!" He yelled, pointing a finger at Shivani. "She let us kill her because she thought that we had come here to start a revolution! She thought that Sora was going to overthrow the Lady once she was one of the Kaze again! We came here because two kids were going to be killed if we didn't! Then you guys start talking about how Nori is going to return and save you all! Let me tell you, he's not coming back!"

"What the hell are you waiting for? Some sort of goddamn savior to come along and solve all your problems for you? No wonder you guys can't use the principles anymore; you're too goddamned scared to do anything! You sit around like a bunch of cowards too frightened to make the next move! Why would anyone want to save people who are too stupid to realize that they need to save themselves!"

He stood there, breathing hard as all the Kaze remained silent, most of them looking down at their feet. The silence in the courtyard was almost palpable, filling their mouths with a bitter taste.

"You stupid brats!" the Lady hissed. "This is my clan! These are my people! And I will not let you take them away from me!" Her hands jammed together and she started making seals. Shocked, the Kaze stepped back as they watched her begin a jutsu.

Hinata swallowed hard. Neither of them had anything left. If she attacked now, they were done for. Light started to blaze around the Lady as Hinata felt Naruto's weight hit her and his arms wrap tightly around her. The earth underneath their feet started to shake.

She waited for the attack to come, but instead what she heard was an enormous crashing sound. The Kaze started screaming.

Naruto and Hinata looked up and were struck speechless by what they saw. The Lady's Tower had completely collapsed, burying her and most of the Honor Guard completely in massive stone blocks. Dust fell over the courtyard as the Kaze stared at the tomb of their leader. Then they turned to look at Naruto and Hinata.

They looked at each other, just as bewildered as the rest of the Kaze. What could cause such a massive tower to fall?

And at that moment, Sora finally managed to make it through the seal. She and Raoul came flying out of the window, landing just ahead of the crowd and bolting over to where Shivani lay on the ground. Raoul landed on his knees with a hard smack, moving his hands to cup either side of her face.

"No," he breathed, brushing a few errant strands of hair out of his sister's face. "NO!" he yelled, putting his arms around her and pulling her up to his chest as she flopped in his arms. He clutched her close as he began to cry.

Hinata dropped the hand she had been holding and started backing away on her hands. "I-I didn't mean to! I was tr-trying to kn-knock her out! But my aim..." her voice trailed off into tears.

The Kaze watched on in silent shame, their world in ruins around them. The crumbled tower lay in chunks down the stairs, their leader buried under the rubble, no doubt dead. They were divided, broken, and now completely without a sense of identity. The boy was right; they were cowards. And now they were paying the price.

"Raoul?" a man's voice came.

He looked up at the man, still cradling Shivani's body.

"Sir, now that the Lady is dead, along with most of her Honor Guard and council, there is no one in power. Because the Lady had no heir, as the Capitan of the Guards, you would be the next in line to be Lord of the Wind."

Raoul shook his head. "I don't want it."

"What do you mean!" the man asked in shock.

"I don't want to be Lord of the Wind. Nor do I think anyone else should be either."

"Why not?"

"We the Kaze were long one of the most powerful and well respected clans in the West. And we embraced that fact, and made it the center of our lives. However, we also forgot what it meant."

"What do you mean?" one man asked.

"Many people have tried to duplicate the Kaze partner training, but few have succeeded because they don't understand what it was that made the partners strong. Being a partnered pair does not make you two halves of a whole. Being a partnered pair means realizing that one plus one doesn't always add up to two. Sometimes it adds up to more."

"We lost that sense somewhere along the way. We became willing to make ourselves just one more gear in the clockworks, willing to do whatever our Lady told us to. That was when we lost who we were; when we stopped thinking for ourselves and let the Lady think for us. That's not being a clan; that's being drones."

Raoul looked down at his sister. "We cannot remain deluded about the fate of those who place absolute faith and power in one person. We need to start thinking like a clan."

"And what is your suggestion as to how to do that?"

"Re-elect the council and put our power in them." There were gasps of shock from the crowd.

"There has always been a Lord or Lady of the Wind! And they have been the ones to appoint the council!" one man protested.

"And look where it got us!" Raoul yelled. "Look where we've ended up! Our powers diminished! Our numbers depleted! We've made a mockery of ourselves with our Lady buried underneath her own tower!"

Suddenly he seemed to deflate, all of the energy simply draining out of him and into the ground. "Please. I wasn't even able to keep my sister safe. Go back to one of your heroes. One of them will surely save you."

The Kaze shifted uncomfortably. The idea of a hero who would save them had somehow lost its appeal. And while the five people who stood in the center of the courtyard, sweaty and sad, didn't look exactly like saviors, the Kaze somehow knew that they were the best hope their clan had for rebuilding.

"Will you at least preside over the election of a new council?" the man asked. "You are the only person who's even remotely qualified to do so."

Raoul stood, still cradling Shivani in his arms, head bowed to look at her face. He started to walk away towards the exit to the courtyard.

"Raoul?" the man asked.

"I will preside over the election of the council," he said quietly.

"It needs to be done-"

"Hey!" Sora interrupted. The man turned to look at her. "Shut up, you idiot," she said, walking to follow Raoul out of the courtyard. Naruto ushered a crying Hinata along behind them.

They moved down the hallway and into a small, sparsely-furnished sitting room. Raoul sat down in a chair, still clutching Shivani. He just stared at her, almost as if he was dead as well.

Hesitantly, Sora moved towards him. "Raoul, put her down," she said, placing one hand on his shoulder.

He shook his head and refused to even look away. "I won't let her go!" he whispered fiercely.

Naruto held Hinata tighter, burying his face in her hair as she cried.

Sora looked down at the girl wrapped tightly in her brother's arms. Something was off. Sora had seen a lot of dead bodies, and something about this wasn't quite right, nagging at the edges of her brain. Something she hadn't been able to see until she was right up next to the girl. She tilted her head to one side, as she discreetly ran through a series of seals to activate one of the medical jutsus she'd learned from Tsunade. She stared for a good thirty seconds before it happened. A small breath and a single heartbeat.

"Hinata?" she asked, still staring at Shivani. Hinata sniffed and looked up at her. "What exactly were you trying to do?"

Hinata sniffed again and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "I was trying to seal off the chakra to everything but her brain and slow her heart down. Enough blood and charka would get to her brain to keep her alive, but the beats are so far between that it's hard to pick one up. It looks just like death, even on relatively close inspection."

Sora rolled her eyes. "Hinata, if it looks like death even on relatively close inspection, then why didn't you do more than a relatively close inspection?"

Hinata's eyes went wide. "You mean..."

Sora smiled and reached over to lay one of her hands across Shivani's collarbone. She closed her eyes and shoved a jolt of charka into the girl.

Shivani took a deep shuddering breath before she started to breath normally. Raoul's eyes went wide as he watched his sister, still lying limp in his arms, begin to breathe quietly.

Sora yawned and stepped back, dusting her hands off. "Sorry kids, that's all the chakra I have left from taking down that damn seal."

"She's alive?" Raoul questioned, barely able to believe it.

"'Course she is. Hinata just sealed her up." Sora shook her head. "Girl doesn't have enough confidence in herself. She did it even when she didn't believe she could."

Hinata was shaking from head to foot, staring at Shivani. "You mean I didn't..."

Sora dismissed her fears with a wave of her hand. "Nah. Give her a few days for all her chakra holes to re-open, and she'll be fine."

Hinata stood there for a second in shock, before her knees gave out on her and she collapsed in tears once again. Naruto managed to catch her just before she hit the ground. He looked down at the girl in his arms, then up at his sister. She too, he noticed, was crying just a little bit. Even Raoul was crying.

He looked at the three of them. They were lucky he knew it was cool to cry when you were happy.

Hell, he was crying too.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Naruto and Hinata wandered around the halls, trying to find their way back to the dorms. Even after a week, they hadn't quite been able to grasp the layout of the compound with its mazes of corridors. Normally, they would have just stopped someone and asked, but tonight, everyone was partying.

For the first time in eleven years, the Kaze felt they were back on their feet again. In a moment of weakness after having discovered that his sister was indeed alive, Raoul had agreed to be the next Lord of the Wind, although with a far more limited scope of power than his predecessors, at his insistence. The council had been elected, the debris from the tower cleared, and the bodies buried, along with more than a few ghosts.

Hope finally had come into view at the end of the tunnel, and the Kaze were celebrating. The ban on wearing anything but uniforms had been lifted, and now the people were an explosion of color and pattern. Music blared loudly as people danced and children ran around playing and laughing until they finally slept in exhaustion. Everyone had been stuffed to the limit and the alcohol had flowed freely. After an extensive argument with Sora and a promise that they weren't going to tell anyone back in Konoha, they had been permitted to try one glass of wine each, which seemed to make them more sleepy than anything else. The party had gone on and on into the night, and was currently showing no signs of stopping.

Having tired of watching a rather tipsy Sora dance around with every eligible man in the Kaze while constantly being shadowed by Shivani, and knowing that the sun was just about to rise, Naruto and Hinata had called it quits and begun the long search for their dorm rooms.

What they found instead was the ocean.

"Wow," Hinata murmured, looking out over the water. The sun was just starting to peek out over the ocean, illuminating the land and sea to their left.

"It's beautiful!" she whispered, before taking in a deep breath of sea air. The wind blew off of the sea and the strands of hair that had fallen out of her bun fluttered in the wind.

Naruto was too busy watching her to watch the sunrise. Somehow, even standing there hunched over the railing, with her bun falling out and her eyes sleepy, she looked like a lady.

He wondered if trying to kiss her right now would be a perverted thing to do.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by Hinata's voice. "I can't believe we did it."

It took a moment for her words to sink in, but when they did, he grinned, and shook his head. "Of course we did it! You just need to have a little more faith in yourself, Hina-chan."

She smiled up at him. "You seem to have enough faith for the both of us."

He blushed red and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Yeah, well, I'm good at that."

She stared at him incredulously for a second, and then burst into a peal of giggles. It was so true, so like him, and just so darn cute for him to say that.

He grinned at her smiling face and bent down to kiss her on impulse. She started, and then tentatively started to return the kiss, happiness rushing through her. Life didn't get much better than this.

They finally broke away, smiling at each other, still wrapped in each other's arms.

"You wanna stay out here for a while?" Naruto asked. Hinata's smile widened, and she nodded her head.

Naruto hopped up onto the balcony railing and pulled Hinata up in front of him. Being careful not to touch her in any way that might be perverted, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest, leaning against the wall. She settled back into his arms happily, laying her arms over his and entangling their fingers.

They were almost asleep, when Naruto suddenly noticed something about the top of her head. "Hey, you're not wearing those hair stick thingies."

She yawned, allowing herself to turn her head so that it nestled into his shoulder, her head tucked under his chin. "I'm afraid I might break them, and they're so pretty. I'm saving them for special occasions." She yawned again, and fell asleep in his arms.

He frowned as he drifted off to sleep, pulling her closer to him. He was going to have to get her more.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"Damn it! My camera's back with my stuff in that hotel!" Sora complained.

Raoul shook his head. "Don't worry; we'll send someone to pick it up tomorrow. If anyone is sober enough, that is."

Sora chuckled and looked back at the pair, sound asleep on the railing. "We should probably move them, or they're going to fall off."

He nodded his agreement, but neither of them moved to do anything. They just stared at the couple nestled up together.

"There was something odd about the tower where the genjutsu users were supposed to be," Raoul said finally.

"What do you mean, odd?"

"There were two bodies – strangers, not Kaze – that were found. It seems they had been killed sometime during the day. Toril is being completely uncooperative, but I'm getting the feeling those weren't the men he hired who escaped."

"Really?" Sora pondered this for a second, trying to figure out what it signified. "So you think there was outside interference?"

He shook his head. "I don't know what it means."

"That was a damn good seal they had on the window," she said.

"Yeah, I know."

"Are you thinking they're the one's who killed the bitch?"

"Possibly."

"If so, you have a potentially rough road ahead of you."

"I know."

They were silent for a moment.

"What are you going to do about Toril?" Sora finally asked.

Raoul sighed and dragged a hand over his face. "We're not doing anything with him for right now, just like with the rest of the Lady's followers. I doubt that many of them will be elected to sit on the council, and they won't stay long once they realize that no one trusts them enough to give them any real power."

"Not worried that they're going to corrupt the rest of the clan and start another coup, are you? Maybe you should bail anyways."

Raoul was silent for a long time before he finally spoke. "When my mother was dying, I almost took Shivani and left. What was there left for us here in a clan that persecuted us? But when I told her of my plan, my mother shook her head and told me I couldn't do that. I protested that the clan was poisoned and slowly dying, just as she was."

He shook his head and took in a ragged breath. "But she told me that you couldn't poison a clan because a clan is not one entity. People within a clan might be poisoned, but the whole clan itself cannot. Somewhere within the clan there was someone whom the poison did not affect and as long as they were there, the clan was not lost."

Sora smiled. "And so you stayed."

He nodded. "And so I stayed. And so I ended up with a royal mess on my hands."

"Still, the fact that you stayed seems to me to be a pretty good indicator that you're the right person to clean it up."

"And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Are you really planning on rejoining the clan?"

Sora just snorted.

Raoul smiled and leaned back against one of the columns. "You know, you wouldn't have to actually become a daughter of the Kaze again. You could just hang out around here for a while. The kids could learn some of the advanced stuff; it would be a shame to have the only intention user of this generation walk out our doors without working with some of the older members who used to be able to use the principles."

"Yeah, well, there are certainly a lot of other things that he could learn in places other than here."

He tried going at her ego. "You know, now that they've passed the test, they're technically the same rank as you."

Sora rolled her eyes and shook her head at his strategy. But at the same time, it was starting to seem like it might not be such a bad idea. Watching a clan try to rebuild was undoubtedly a very educational experience. It was a chance to get them exposed to real life politics, rather than all the theory she has been making them learn. Especially since Hinata was going to become head of her clan (as Naruto continuously told her) and Naruto was to become Hokage (as Naruto continuously told everyone else).

Plus, she could brush up on a few things.

And the food was good.

"You're not gonna try and make me wear one of those damn uniforms, are you?"

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

Sitting out on a cliff overlooking the palace, two men watched as the Kaze celebrated in the courtyard.

"I hate to say that Itachi was right, but they did come out of their rabbit hole," one of the men said in a low, gravely voice. His huge shoulders shifted under his cloak as he settled himself onto a rock.

"Still, we were the ones who found the boy," said the other man, pulling his hat down closer to the collar of his cloak. "And I, for one, am not inclined to tell Itachi he was right."

The man started in surprise at his partner. "Are you saying we shouldn't tell the others, Shiraku?"

The man sniffed and turned away from the scene in front of him. "Why should we tell them? They will never come looking for them here, and I doubt Sora is going to want to advertise her presence." His voice lilted as he walked smoothly down the path away from the Kaze.

The larger man stood and took a few big, heavy steps to catch up. "So we leave them there?"

Shiraku nodded and continued to walk along. "I am intrigued by the technique he used to counter our genjutsu. If he learns to focus the energy of the Kyuubi, that could be something we could pull out of him when the time comes." He laughed softly in a high, tinkling voice. "Just think about the interesting things we could do with that, Nadare."

"So we're leaving without them?" Nadare asked.

"We'll just let them sit tight for a while and keep an eye on them. Let them taste a little happiness before we tear them down."

**Original Author's Notes**: Yeah! It's nice to have that all resolved. I'm glad everyone seemed to have liked, and basically understood the intention thing. It will definitely be coming back.

There's a big time jump coming up here. While a lot of very cute NaruHina fluff happens while they're with the Kaze, as well as some general growing up, if I include it in this story, I worried it will never get finished. So, while I fully intend to come back sometime and write some shorts about their time there, it will not be included in Two Halves.

On a side note, I made enough bizarre noises reading the last chapter of Naruto that my mother worried I was sick. I won't say what happens in case there are people out there for whom it would be a spoiler, but I'm happy to see that some of the elements of my story aren't completely outside the realm of possibility for the real one.

Also I tend to hang out at the Kitsune no Hana forums (everyone there is so nice!), and when the next chapter is expected is generally posted there along with any delays. So, if you want to know when it will be out, that's the place to check.

**Original Editor's Note**: Again, it's my fault this is coming out so late. I finished cleaning up my Eagle Project this weekend; all that's left is to add grass seed in spring, and do a fundraiser to take care of any leftover costs. Combine that with spending my day off at an all-night (and through to the next morning) bowl-a-thon, and I was dead tired yesterday, thus I finished editing this today (just under 1,200 words of editing; Woo-Hoo!).

On the Eagle Project note, thanks to those who offered their support for me and my project; I appreciate it. Thanks to Thorn1484, my friend nautical nate (who needs to learn to leave reviews in complete sentences) and Chibi-hime (chibified kitsunes – Sorry chapter 4 has taken so long; I've got it edited on paper, but haven't finished transferring it to my computer). And to NotasuSama, Daniel of Lorien, and gaarasand; nice to know others who've gone through this are behind me. And thanks to anyone I forgot.

A special thanks to Thorn1484, who wrote a very good description of the principle of intention. I understood it well enough, but for those of you who read my description of it, I obviously couldn't put my understanding into words. Gomen. Luckily, Thorn1484 did, so here's his/her description for those who don't get it, or found my description to be awful; hell, I did!

"Great chapter! And, just to let you know, I don't think that the principle of intention was hard to understand at all. It's like setting a plane on autopilot, correct? Instead of guiding the plane manually from one place to the next, you just program the destination (the intent), and let the plane make all the adjustments necessary to get itself there. And since the plane's computer is so precise, it eradicates the margin of error that would be there if you were guiding it manually. So the principle of intention is like gathering chakra into

the core, setting the intent/destination of the chakra, and letting it guide the body by instinct, eliminating the error and weakness that would be present if it was being guided completely by the conscious mind.

TS- it seems to me that "intent" isn't a ninjutsu any more than Rock lee's opening of the celestial gates is. It's using chakra to augment the users body (part of taijutsu) instead of affecting the opponents mind (genjutsu) or altering the environment (ninjutsu)."

So thanks to Thorn1484 (that was a WONDERFUL example), all the other reviewers, and DameWren for sending me those reviews to read; I didn't think anyone would offer me advice or support on my project. As sappy as it sounds, that helped a lot, so thanks for sending them, and thanks to those who wrote them. Arigatou!


	28. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

"But I don't want you to go!" Shivani protested, pouting.

Hinata smiled gently as she continued to put things into her bags. "We're due back in Konoha in six months. We have to go all the way home and then finish up a few training things before we go back to Konoha."

The other girl sniffed and leaned back against the wall. She was sitting on the bed opposite Hinata's, the two of them crammed into one small room. It was the girl's dormitory, meant to be a transition between people who were considered full warriors and therefore too old to live with their parents, but also too young to live completely on their own.

Hinata and Shivani had become roommates shortly after the election of the council, at Shivani's insistence. Having not been killed in the fight, Shivani had decided that what was supposed to happen was that Sora was supposed to fall in love and marry her brother while she was supposed to fall in love and marry Naruto. That had become her version of "happily ever after". It took several weeks of Hinata trying to explain things, and one one of Naruto's explosions, to get it through her head that it just wasn't going to happen. Naruto wasn't interested in anyone but Hinata. Unfortunately, much to Sora's annoyance, Shivani was still holding out that she and Raoul were made for each other. Nothing seemed to be able to sway her from that.

Still, after those few initial bumps, Hinata found that she and Shivani were fast friends. They had a number of things in common; both were members of the heads of their clans and both didn't achieve as much as others thought they should. They also shared a love for tea and anything small and furry. It was something of a relief to Hinata to find someone else who was perfectly happy to have a little nest of mice under their bed.

"Hinaaataaa!" the girl whined. "What am I going to do without you? Who's going to sneak down into the kitchen with me at midnight? Who's going to help me dye my hair? Who's going to walk halfway across the city with me for a cup of chai? I don't want another roommate; I want you to stay!"

Hinata shook her head and put another folded lanagha into her bag. Shivani always tended to be slightly melodramatic. "I'm going to miss you too, but there are plenty of other girls to hang out with here; you just need to let them get to know them."

She scowled. "They didn't want to be my friend before I was the Lord of the Wind's little sister."

"They couldn't without potentially angering the Lady; you know that. Give them a chance; a lot of the girls are very nice."

Shivani sniffed. "You're going to write?"

Hinata sighed and turned away from her packing to take both of Shivani's hands in hers. "Of course I'm going to write."

"You never write your family."

"Because we're in blackout. No one is supposed to know where we are." And keeping that a secret had proven harder than they had originally thought. The sudden reappearance of Sora after almost two years of absence and only scattered reports for years before that was likely to cause a stir. Publicly, the Kaze refused to acknowledge that Sora was there, and insisted they had no idea of her whereabouts. Privately, Sora wore a Kaze uniform with a mini-skirt and made everyone call her Maya.

"Promise?" Shivani asked.

Hinata smiled. "I promise."

Shivani crossed her arms and pouted harder. "She's waiting to teach you all the neat stuff after you've left."

Hinata didn't reply. It was true; Sora did have some more advanced techniques that she was waiting to teach them after they had left the Kaze, simply because they were dangerous. Even with Raoul in charge, even with all the changes, even with them all living there for a year, Sora still didn't trust the Kaze enough to teach them anything really high level.

Still, it wouldn't have made much difference to Shivani. Much to her embarrassment, she had proven to not be very talented at ninjutsu or genjutsu, spoiling her plans to grow up to be just like Sora. It had not, however, prevented her from trying to dress just like Sora, as her current attire of mini-skirt and midriff-baring top proved. Sora had tried to put a stop to it, but Raoul insisted (with a grin) that he could not enforce a dress code on Shivani and not on Sora.

It was generally after one of these arguments that Sora would become fed up with the Kaze and the three of them would leave for awhile and travel around. They had seen more in the past year than they had in their entire lives. Hidden cities in dark, humid jungles, black sand beaches, and erupting volcanoes. Using the Kaze as a base camp, Sora had taken them all over, always careful to stay away from her old stomping ground.

Hinata looked back at her packing. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter was that because they never had to carry all their stuff at once, she had amassed an amazing amount of stuff from their trips. Cloths, tea, scrolls, things she was convinced Hanabi would love; all these came back in her bag and went into her closet, which was now full. Fortunately, Sora was the same way and had agreed to get a falcon to come carry it all back to the house.

She sighed. She still hadn't gotten the hang of summoning anything big.

She had returned to contemplating how she was going to get everything into her bags when she heard Shivani's voice behind her. "I…ummm…I'm going to go make some tea," she said, hopping off her bed and heading towards the door. "Don't worry, I won't say a thing!" she whispered as she closed the door behind her.

Hinata looked at the closed door in puzzlement before she turned back to her packing. She went to move something onto Shivani's bed and screamed. There, outside her window hanging upside down, was Naruto, grinning like a madman and pointing at the latch on the widow.

"Naruto!" she said in a stage whisper, running to let him in before anyone could see him hanging outside her window. He grinned at her and swung himself inside, landing gently on his feet. "Naruto, what are you doing here? You know you're not allowed in the girl's dorms!" she said, closing the window behind him.

He had grown a lot in the time they had been with the Kaze, as evidenced by the sheer number of uniforms he had gone through. He was, as Sora had predicted, tall now, and his face had lost a little of its characteristic roundness. Hanging out with other boys his age, or specifically, hanging out with other boys who practiced lots of taijutsu, Naruto had not only had plenty of training partners, but had also been introduced to weight-training, and he'd bulked up slightly, making him look a little older than he was.

His actions however, were just as childish as they had ever been.

He plopped himself down happily on her bed. "I figured you had a lot of stuff and I was going to offer to pack some of it in my bags. Hey…I remember this!" He picked up a game she had gotten on one of their trips south; a wooden board with a series of small hollows filled with stones. "You wanna play?" he asked.

Hinata sighed and rested her fingertips on her temples. The boy sitting in front of her had advanced a great deal in his training, helped rebuild the Kaze, and gotten through a number of tough scrapes with her and Sora in the last year, but he was still fond of pulling these little pranks, like sneaking into the girls dorm to visit her. It wasn't that he had anything "inappropriate" that he wanted to do as much as he wanted to tick off his sister. Hinata had eventually decided that it was pointless to try and get him to stop.

Besides, she didn't really mind when he snuck into her dorm room.

She sighed. "Naruto, we don't have time. Someone could come in at any minute." She continued to move around the room trying to finish packing, stretching to reach a shelf above her bed.

"Then I'll leave when they come," he said, moving behind her to help her get a box off of the shelf. He grabbed the box from her hands and then let it flop down onto the bed so that he could grab her around the waist and pull her back against him.

"Naruto," she said, a slight amount of censure in her voice. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, rocking the two of them back and forth, his hands warm on her exposed midriff. He had developed a very strict sense of how it was okay to touch her and how it was not okay to touch her , based on observations he had made of the Kaze and frequent lectures from Sora. He had found that he liked to stay in contact with her, so much that at times it actually frustrated her. It was fine now, but what was going to happen when they got back to Leaf?

She sighed. What was going to happen when they got back to Leaf was becoming a more pressing question every day.

Feeling her unease, Naruto lifted his face from her neck. "What's wrong?"

She sighed again, allowing herself to lean back against him and rest her head on his shoulder. "We're not going to be able to do this back in Leaf."

"Eh? Of course we will!"

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "No, we won't. My father won't allow it."

"It doesn't matter what your father says! He's the one who's got to change, not us!" he insisted, tightening his hold.

She turned her head into his shoulder. "I know. It's just…" her voice trailed off.

"What?" he asked again.

"Everything is going to change when we get back to Leaf." The comment just sort of hung in the air, neither of them willing to comment. They knew it was true, but they didn't want to elaborate. The potential changes and problems were weighing heavily on their minds.

And right at the top was the fact that their mission had two parts, and only one had been completed. Neither of them knew whether Sora would be returning to Leaf with them.

She had integrated herself so well into their lives that it was almost impossible to imagine life without her. Sora was family in every sense of the word that mattered. For Naruto especially, the idea of returning to living alone in his one-room apartment in Leaf seemed bizarre, and almost unbearable.

"Have you talked to her about it?" Hinata asked, knowing that she didn't have to clarify the subject.

He sighed and grumbled darkly. "I tried. She says she's still thinking about it. Weighing the two of us against a village full of idiots and assholes," he quoted, rolling his eyes.

"What about Hokage-sama?"

"Nee-chan says she qualifies as an idiot. Just not as big an idiot as most of the villagers."

Hinata shook her head and tried to pull away. He held her closer. "Naruto, I have to pack."

He groaned and let her go. She picked up a stack of lanaghas and a few books. "Can you pack those in your bags? It would be a huge help."

He grinned and took the stack from her. "Sure, no problem. I can take-" he was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking before they swung the door open.

Sora popped her head in. "Hey, Hinata have you seen my brother?"

"Sora!" Shivani's voice called out. Hinata looked over at her boyfriend, who, sure enough, had managed to transform into a perfect replica of her roommate. The girl smiled brightly and tilted her head slightly to one side, a common Shivani gesture. "He hasn't been here. Hey, I think I'm making progress convincing Raoul to let me come with you!"

Sora glared at her. "You are not coming with us and that's final."

"But Sora!"

"No, no, NO, not another word out of you; this is not open for discussion! Hinata, if you see Naruto, tell him I'm looking for him, 'kay?" Hinata nodded and Sora left the room.

She was halfway back down the hall when Shivani turned the corner, carrying a tray full of tea and mango. "Hi Sora!" she said brightly.

Sora stared at her for a second, before she whirled around and bolted back down the hall. Throwing open the door to Hinata's room, she was relatively unsurprised to see the room had only a single occupant. She was about to demand where he went, when she noticed the open window. Rushing past Hinata (who just quietly continued packing), Sora leaned out the window to see Naruto running along the edge of the outer wall.

She fumed. "Damn it Naruto, just wait until I get my hands on you!" She climbed out of the window and started after him.

Hinata smiled and shook her head as Shivani poked her head in. She hoped some things would never change.

"I feel like I should be giving you some sort of sage advice," Raoul said.

Naruto shrugged. "Eh, don't worry about it."

The two men kept watching the never-ending roll of the waves along the beach, standing on the outer wall. Raoul had taken Naruto under his wing somewhat during the rebuilding of the Kaze. He wanted to be Hokage, so it seemed to be a fairly good idea to give the boy an up close and personal look at government. He didn't always pick up on things, like some of the subtleties of human emotion that were being played out around the conference table. But he always knew just how to get to the heart of the matter and sometimes, Raoul wondered who was learning more.

Rebuilding the Kaze had been even more of a challenge than they had originally thought. It was impossible to figure out exactly who knew what about the Lady's treachery and they had yet to find a cause for the tower collapsing. Accusations flew about who had been too close to the Lady to be trusted, and who was simply after more power than they should have been. There were still some who thought that the introduction of jutsu to the Kaze repertoire was a sign of evil, and Naruto's view of "Well, then you don't have to use them" didn't satisfy them.

Numbers had diminished at first, as some left and others were kicked out. But then, things had started to settle down and smooth out into something that was at least more like a healthy clan then there had been before. The elder Kaze who remembered what life was like before had started training the young. From there, they had formed old style partnerships and fighting units. And as everyone started to train again, some tentatively experimenting with ninjutsu or genjutsu, they had stared to feel unified once more.

But outside the walls, things were still as disjointed and disorderly as ever. And Raoul knew that his three guests from the East had had a number of close scrapes in their travels. All Sora would say was that someone nasty was searching for them and that they hadn't found them yet. But if they were as bad as the three of them had supposed, Raoul wondered why they hadn't been found yet. And how long was it going to be until it finally happened?

"Be careful out there," Raoul said.

"Eh? I'm not going to let anything happen to the girls!" Naruto said indignantly.

"Good. But don't get cocky. Try not to get in trouble if you can avoid it."

"I'm always careful," Naruto protested. Raoul just looked at him. "Okay, so I'm careful most of the time."

Raoul shook his head. "Watch your back. We can't even know what goes on within our own walls. Don't be caught off guard."

"You still worried about what happened to the Lady?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

Raoul sighed. "We still don't know why that tower collapsed on her. We were never able to figure out exactly who was in that tower during your test."

"Eh, don't worry about that," Naruto said. "If they come back, we'll just kick their asses."

"You can't treat everything like that Naruto."

"Like what?"

"Like everything is just going to work itself out in the end."

"It doesn't work itself out. I make it work!"

Raoul chuckled. "You can't make everything work all the time."

"I know that!" Naruto said, but Raoul could tell that he didn't believe him. In Naruto's heart, he honestly believed that he was going to be able to go back to Leaf and just fix everything. He was stronger than ever and he felt invincible. Nothing Raoul could say was going to change that.

"Sora make you put 'positive attitude' on your packing list again?"

Naruto grinned. "Yep."

"You promise you are going to write?"

Hinata just barely kept herself from sighing. "Yes Shivani, I promise I am going to write."

"And I can come visit you?"

"Yes you can come visit, just make sure you talk to your brother first." The last thing she wanted was Shivani creating a fantasy around going to the East and then leaving on a whim without telling anyone.

"You have the presents I gave you?"

"Yes."

"And the ones for your sister?"

"Yes."

"And you have the-"

"Oye, Shivani!" Naruto yelled. "Stop pestering Hina-chan."

The two girls turned to look at him and started laughing.

There were about six kids hanging off of Naruto, and a couple more standing a few feet away, having decided they were too old and dignified to make a scene. One particularly small girl who couldn't have been more than three had lain herself across the top of his head and was clinging to his blond hair with her small fists. Others held onto his arms and legs, one dangling from around his neck. They were a group of students he had taught the basics of ninjutsu to and then led on a plot to terrorize every adult in the Kaze. Small children with the ability to transform when their parents couldn't had proven not only be a problem, but one of the fastest ways to get the parents to do ninjutsu.

The kids were not thrilled about their ringleader going back home. He always came up with the best ideas, the best plans for really driving the adults crazy. Plus, whenever something went wrong, they had always been able to run to his girlfriend to help patch them up.

"Naruto no go!" yelled the little girl clinging to his hair.

"I gotta go," he said, trying to pry the little girl off his head without hurting her. "I have to go back home."

"This home! Stay!" the girl whined.

Naruto looked desperately at Hinata for help. She smiled, then walked over to remove the various children hanging off of him and detangle the little girl's hands from his spiky blond hair. "Come on, sweetie, we have to go now."

"Which sweetie?" the girl asked, causing Hinata to giggle and blush while Naruto grinned.

"Both of you," Hinata said, putting the girl on her feet, while Naruto detached the other munchkins.

"All right kids; we have to leave sometime!" Sora yelled. "No point in putting it off!"

"Coming!" Hinata answered, bending down to scoop up her bag.

"If I get any really good prank ideas, I'll mail 'em to you," Naruto whispered to the kids before he snatched up his own bag and jogged after Hinata, slipping one arm around her waist. They stopped next to Sora, who was standing in front of Shivani and Raoul.

"Well, I guess this is it," Raoul said.

Naruto scuffed one foot on the ground. He hated goodbyes. He never knew what to say.

"Yep, time for us to run on home," Sora said. She stuck her hand out and Raoul took it. "Thanks for letting us hang out here for a while."

"I owe the three of you more than I can repay," he said simply. They had done a great deal for the Kaze, and while they would never truly be a part of it, the clan would always bare their mark. It wasn't sentimental or mushy; it was simply a statement of fact.

And since it was, there wasn't any need to deny what they had done; simply a need to dismiss the debt. "Oye, don't worry about it," Naruto said, brushing aside the compliment. He shook Raoul's hand as well, two grown men saying goodbye to each other.

Shivani was far more demonstrative. Having made sure Hinata knew just how much she was going to miss her, Shivani dove towards Sora, latching onto her like a leech. "I'm going to miss you!" she wailed.

"Ah! Get off of me!" Sora yelled, trying to pry Shivani from around her waist. "All right, that's IT! We're leaving NOW!" She turned and started walking away, Shivani still dangling from her waist.

Naruto and Hinata laughed and said one final goodbye to Raoul as they started to follow Sora. Shivani finally let go and ran towards them, jumping up to hug them both at the same time. "Come back!" she said, before dashing off again.

Following her with their eyes, they were surprised to see most of the Kaze standing there, waving goodbye. Their breaths caught in their throats, and moisture started to form in the bottom of Hinata's eyes. Smiling, Naruto put his arm around Hinata's waist and raised his free hand to wave back at them. Sniffling faintly, Hinata did the same, tucking her head slightly into Naruto's shoulder.

"Would ya'll hurry up?" Sora said crossly. Sentimental goodbyes were not her thing.

With one last wave to the clan, Naruto and Hinata turned to follow, still holding onto each other.

"So, do I get to learn the Fire Wall no Jutsu?" Naruto asked, pulling on Hinata's hand to help her over a boulder. They were headed back over the mountains, knee deep in snow.

Sora rolled her eyes. "It's not a terribly useful jutsu, and it takes a whole lot of charka."

"But I want to learn it," Naruto grumbled. "I have enough control now."

"I'm not saying you can't do it; I'm saying I don't know why you want to learn it, dork."

"Hey!" Naruto said indignantly. "It's a cool technique!" His eyes narrowed. "I know why you don't want to teach it to me! It's because you can't do it yourself, isn't it?" he said triumphantly.

Sora sighed. "Again, why would I want to?" she said.

"HAHA"! I knew it! You can't do it!" he laughed mercilessly, only to be caught full in the face by a snowball. He glared at his sister while she laughed at him, then let go of Hinata's hand as he bent over.

"Naruto-kun?" she said worriedly as he scooped up the largest mass of snow he could and lobbed it at his sister.

Sora easily dodged it. "Is that the best you can do?" she asked, throwing another one at him.

Naruto's eyes gleamed.

"Um, you guys, do you really think-" Hinata stopped trying as Naruto and Sora started to throw snow at each other as hard as they could. Sighing, she tried to find a place to stand where she wouldn't get sucked in. Once they started something like this, there was no stopping them. She just hoped they didn't break something.

Then out of the corner of her eye she saw two dark flashes against the white snow. Her brow creased. "Hey you guys," she tried, but the two were hopelessly embattled with their snowball fight.

"Naruto-kun," she tried louder, hoping to get at least his attention.

"Huh?" he looked up at her. "What is it?"

"I just saw-"

And then the snow began to move beneath their feet.

**Original Author's Notes**: I love writing Shivani. She's just to hyper.

**Original Editor's Notes**: OK, first off, I need to apologize. I've basically gone into seclusion the past 2 weeks.

Now I need to clear something up. I, the editor, am Time Shifter. I am a male, and a Boy Scout, and I am the one who did the Eagle Project. DameWren, as the first word in her name suggests, is a girl, and therefore has not done an Eagle Project. There was apparently some confusion there, so to sum up -

Time Shifter male Boy Scout did Eagle Project

DameWren female not a Boy Scout no Eagle Project

With all that said, I apologize again for the late update, and hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	29. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

It started off as a small shift, just enough to make you plant your feet and wonder what was going on.

"Hinata?" Naruto questioned, heading towards her.

He had almost reached her when the snow really started to move. The entire sheet of snow they were standing on started to slide off the face of the mountain. Naruto reached out and grabbed Hinata's hand as they began to fall. She screamed and pushed her way up against the snow.

"Push out! Push out!" Sora yelled, as she turned herself so that she was parallel to the cascading waterfall of snow. She bent her knees and pushed off, sending herself sailing off into the open air. Twisting around, Naruto grabbed Hinata around the waist and they pushed off as well, shooting out away from the mountain. They watched in awe as a third of the mountain slid away.

"The snow's still going to be moving when we land! Try to stay on top as best you can! Use chakra! " Sora yelled as loud as could over the howling wind in their ears. Hinata looked down at the snow moving along the ground underneath her feet. She gulped, closed her eyes, and concentrated her charka on her feet.

They hit the snow at a dead run. The second the snow made contact with their feet it would break away, leaving them once again with nothing to stand on. The snow smashed into their bodies and faces, completely whiting out their world. Only the fact that Sora had made them walk though rapids kept them from completely losing their footing. It was almost like walking on air. Naruto's arm started to slip from around Hinata's waist and they fought to keep in contact with each other. Naruto had to turn his back against the snow to keep them from getting pushed down.

And that was when he saw it. Through the rivers of snow whipping past them, he could just barely make out snow that was going up towards the sky and back towards them. It arched over their heads, and he was willing to bet anything that it was coming back down to hit them again.

Shit. This wasn't an avalanche; this was an attack. It wasn't going to die down eventually if they just tried to ride it out. It was just going to keep coming.

He looked to his left and was just barely able to make out Sora struggling against the snow a few feet away.

"It's coming back!" he yelled, for lack of a better way to describe it.

"What the hell do you mean it's coming back?" Sora yelled back.

Naruto pointed behind them. Sora looked towards the upsweeping snow. "Aw, SHIT!" She started trying to move towards them. "We've got to counter it somehow!"

"How the hell do we do that?" Naruto yelled.

Hinata yelped as she lost her footing. Naruto gripped her hand as hard as he could and tried to pull her to him, but instead he got yanked down with her and they both went tumbling through the snow.

He managed to get his hands around her waist again, pulling her back against his chest and curling around her. Damn it!

"Hold on," he heard Hinata say, hunching her shoulders and trying to make space between them for her hands. She pushed her palms together and started forming seals, fighting against the pounding of the snow. They kept sliding farther and farther down the mountain, pushing desperately with their feet to keep themselves from being swept under the snow.

Finally, she finished the last of the seals and jumped up to wrap her hand around his neck. Realizing what she was trying to do, Naruto grabbed Hinata tightly and lifted her up higher, so that she was leaning slightly over his shoulder.

She raised her hands to her mouth. "Phoenix Fire no Jutsu!" she yelled, and blew over her fingers, sending a ball of flame into the air. Instantly, the snow around them began to melt. Water rushed past them, carving out pathways in the snow while white swirls of steam rose above them. The fire effectively cut the snow, clearing a path for them to stand, although the banks of snow around them seemed to rise higher and higher.

Then, suddenly, the pounding of the snow simply stopped. They stared for a second, not believing it was over, before Hinata finally slid down to the ground. Slowly, they looked around them. They had apparently melted not only the snow coming around them, but the snow underneath their feet as well. The water from the melted snow had run through the banks behind them, cutting out a thin gorge with high walls.

Walking over, Naruto tested the walls of snow with his hand. It crumbled away easily under his hand. "It's not going to support our weight," he said, looking back at her over his shoulder.

She bit her lower lip and nodded. "So we're stuck?" she asked.

Naruto rubbed the snow out of his hair. "Of course not!"

"Then how are we getting out?"

He grinned sheepishly. "I haven't quite figured that out yet."

She sighed and looked up at the walls of the ravine. The sky showed clear and blue above them.

"Such a pity," a silky voice said.

Naruto and Hinata turned to look down the length of the ravine. Standing about a hundred feet away were two men; one slender, the other huge.

Naruto's breath sucked in as he looked at the men's coats; black, with dark red clouds swirling around them. They had evaded them for so long that it almost seemed impossible that they could be here, but there was no denying who they were.

Akatsuki.

"I must say that I didn't really expect that little trick to kill you or your sister, but I had hoped that it would rid us of that little friend of yours," the man continued. It was impossible to see his face; the collar of his coat met the brim of his wide straw hat almost perfectly. His companion was hatless, wild black hair sticking out from his head in every direction. His nose was hawkish; his eyes deep-set and dark. He stared down at them from his great height wordlessly, but with a face full of contempt.

The man with the hidden face continued to speak in his soft, lilting voice. It was almost hypnotizing. "Allow me to introduce us. This is Nadare, formally of the Hidden Village of Stone." Ha paused, lifting one hand to indicate his companion before bringing it back up to his own chest. "And I am Shiraku. I suppose you could say that I was from the Hidden Village of Cloud, but I was there for such a brief portion of my life, it hardly seems relevant."

Hinata desperately started searching through her mind, trying to remember if there had been anything in the bingo book about either of them. Only the name Nadare rung a bell, and then only vaguely.

"Haven't heard of us? It isn't all that surprising. Our home villages aren't terribly found of talking about us for some reason."

"HA! I know why!" Naruto said, startling Hinata, who had started to get drawn into his voice. "You guys must not be worthy of being heard of! You must not be that strong!"

"Naruto!" Hinata breathed. How many times had she and Sora tried to pound it into his head that he shouldn't start fights by telling the opponent how bad they were? She looked over at two men standing there. If they were Akatsuki, then they weren't in the bingo book because they chose not to be, not because they weren't worthy.

Shiraku reached up to grab the brim of his hat, sweeping it down off his head as he tilted his face down. "Ah, don't underestimate us!" He spoke quietly, almost in a whisper, but with an intensity that sent shivers down their spines. His hair was rod straight and steely gray. Hinata could almost swear there was a light blue sheen to it where it reflected the light. It fell forward, just long enough to hide his face from them. "After all," he started to tilt his head, hair moving back to uncover his face. "You don't even know what we can do yet!"

Hinata's eyes widened as she stared at the man. He was absolutely the most beautiful man she had ever seen, almost feminine in appearance. His features were fine and narrow, almost surreally so. As if he wasn't quite human. At first the man seemed to be ghostly pale, almost white in color. But then he moved his face slightly and she realized that it was not just his natural skin tone.

The man was tattooed. White symbols had been inked in all over his face, just barely visible in his already pale skin. They covered his face almost completely, running in fanciful designs up and around the ridges of his eyes, swirling down onto his cheeks before plunging down towards his neck and disappearing into his high collar. Naruto grimaced. Why would anyone want to do that to themselves?

The man smiled icily. "You think you can beat us? You've only been allowed to roam free for as long as you have because we let you."

"What do you mean?" Naruto demanded.

Shiraku laughed. "Do you think we haven't been able to keep track of you for two and a half years? Are you so naïve that you think the Akatsuki THAT incompetent? We've had our eye on you for a long time."

"What do you mean 'you've had your eye on us'?" Naruto yelled.

His smile widened. "You never did figure out why the tower collapsed on the Lady, did you?"

Naruto and Hinata's jaws dropped. Were they saying that they were the ones who…

"No," Hinata whispered. But that would mean they had known where they were for a year! How much of their training had they watched? How much about them did they know? How could they fight people who were so skilled that the three of them didn't even know they were being followed?

Shiraku laughed again. "You really are amusing. For all your training-"

"Shiraku." The man behind them finally spoke, his expression never changing, his eyes never leaving them. "Can't we just get to it?"

The slender man looked annoyed for a second and then sighed. "You're right, you're right, go ahead and get them." He turned to walk away, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture.

Nadare brought his hands together in front of him, his left hand wrapping his right fist. He breathed in deeply, then exhaled with a rush of breath. Naruto and Hinata backed up a pace, trying to figure out what was going to happen. Nadare turned and slammed his fist into the wall beside him. It began to shake, snow starting to break away from the tops of the ravine, falling onto them in huge clumps.

"Shit! We've gotta get out of here!" Naruto yelled. Bending their knees, they jumped as high as they could onto the wall of snow and started trying to work their way up. The snow crumbled under their hands as they tried to keep their charka spread wide enough to keep them moving.

The walls continued to shake harder and harder as they went up, seeming to bend in illogical ways. They found themselves sucked in with the wall as the snow fell around them, closing out the sun.

"Naruto!" Hinata screamed and reached for his hand. Their fingertips just barely made contact before the snow buried them both.

It was cold, it was dark, and it was difficult to breath. Naruto turned his head slightly, and tried to calm his breathing. There wasn't much oxygen in the snow, and every breath he took depleted it more. He reached out with one hand trying to find Hinata. Finally, he managed to brush the tips of her fingers and hook them with his just up to the first knuckle. He could feel her shaking.

He pushed his other hand down into the snow a little, trying to make room for him to move it freely. He had never been so grateful that he knew how to use one handed seals. Without them we would be stuck. With them, he had a small chance of survival.

He started to feel himself go slightly lightheaded with lack of oxygen. He started to run through three quick seals, then opened his palm flat down. "Wind of Fire no Jutsu," he whispered.

The hot air blasted out of his palm, melting some of the snow and almost burning his skin. But with it came much needed oxygen. Naruto turned his hand to blast the snow from under him. As the snow underneath him gave, he fell to his feet and turned the blast to the snow under Hinata. He pulled her towards him and she came crashing through the last of the snow, landing on his chest with a shriek and a thump.

He closed his hand, ending the juts, while she panted hard and clung to him. Two more seals and he had a small ball of chakra glowing like a light bulb over his hand. He looked around the little room he had made. The melted water had frozen again, turning the walls and floor to glittering sheets of ice.

"I think we have enough air to last us for a bit." He reached up with his free hand to rub along her shoulder blade. "You okay?"

She nodded into his shoulder and then pulled away slightly to look up at him. "Thank you," she said.

He squeezed her with one arm and then looked up at the ceiling. "So theoretically, if we go straight up, we'll get out of here."

"But we don't know how far up it is. Plus, we don't know if we'll destabilize something and end up crushing ourselves again," she protested.

"Well, there's got to be some way out of this!" he said crankily. "Maybe we can signal Nee-chan somehow."

"How would we keep from signaling the men too?" she asked.

"I don't know, but we have to do something!" he yelled. She winced and took a step backwards.

"Hey, hey!" he said, slightly panicked-sounding, hauling her back up against him. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to yell." He tilted his chin to run his cheek across the top of her head.

She chocked back on the tears that were threatening to come out of her eyes. "I know, it's just…I don't see how we're going to get out of here!"

"There has to be a way out."

"But how do you know that? How can you be so sure?"

He grinned down at her, almost apologetically. "Because if things are still the same as last time, they want me alive."

Her eyes widened as she stared up at him. Then she set her features and nodded firmly. "Let me see what I can see," she said, backing up out of his arms. She turned to one of the walls and activated her Byakugan then the echoes. Instantly, her world was transformed into one of colored lines and shadows. She could see the remains of the chakra from Naruto's jutsu around her, filling the cavern. Focusing her eyes outward, she tried to see what lay beyond the walls of snow.

The snow itself was full of chakra lines. She squinted slightly, trying to make out exactly what form they were taking. Waves, she realized; two different types of them. Not the kind of wave that went up and down while it moved forward, but also the kind that pushed things together and then pulled them apart, like the waves the Sound Nins used.

She suddenly became even colder. They weren't up against Sound Nin, were they?

"Hina-chan?" Naruto's voice cut through her thoughts. "Can you see how far it is to the surface?"

She blinked at him and then turned off the echoes and looked into the layers of shadows surrounding them. There was solid snow around them on three sides. One direction seemed to offer air if you dug. "We'd have to go through about 50 feet that way," she said, pointing.

"What about up?"

She tilted her head towards the ceiling. "About twenty…" Her voice trailed off as the shadows seemed to shift slightly. Her brow creased and she tilted her head slightly, trying to get a better idea of what was going on. Raising her hands, she turned the echoes back on again.

"Hina-chan?" Naruto asked, as her eyes went wide.

"Move!" she yelled. "There's something coming through-"

But it was too late. A large glob of snow landed right on top of his head, covering him almost completely. Light streamed into the caverns from the large round opening. Sora stuck her head in upside down.

"Okay, so I understand that you two haven't gotten a lot of time alone with each other recently, but isn't this a bit much?" She grinned.

"Dammit!" Naruto burst out of the pile of snow. "Did you have to do that?" he yelled at Sora.

She had already started to climb out of the tunnel. "Sheesh! If I'd known I was going to get that that kinda reaction, I would've left the two of you down here longer!"

He growled at her, the tension still coursing through his veins. Hinata laid a hand on his arm. She smiled slightly. "Can you give me a boost?" she asked.

Still scowling, he bent his knees and threaded the fingers of his hands together. Lightly placing her hands on his shoulders, Hinata put one foot up into the cup of his hands. Making sure his feet were firmly planted, Naruto threw her up through the tunnel Sora had created. She landed with a soft crunch in the snow.

Leaning over the edge of the tunnel, she watched as her boyfriend climbed up the wall, still grumbling about sisters. She smiled and reached out to offer him a hand over the edge.

"Great, now that we're all done playing in the snow, let's try to figure out what the hell just happened and get on home," Sora said, turning to look at the snowy horizon.

Hinata and Naruto looked at each other questioningly, then back to Sora. "Onee-chan, you didn't see them?" Hinata asked.

"See who?" Sora asked, turning to look at them over her shoulder.

"The two men! The Akatsuki!" Naruto yelled, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sora's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, Akatsuki?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"Ah…I believe he means us," a voice said.

Turning back towards her front, Sora looked at the two men standing before her. "And you are?" she asked.

Shiraku rolled his eyes. "I already went through all of this with your young companions. Is it really necessary to go over it again?" he asked, as if he were some type of long-suffering martyr.

"Well, why not? Honestly, you don't seem like the type of man who would really mind introducing himself over again."

"Really?"

Her smile had an edge. "Well, you know, with your whole look…" She let her voice trail off.

"What whole look?"

It took Hinata a minute to understand exactly what the hell Sora was doing. She was trying to give them a chance to figure out what the hell to do. They knew nothing about these guys, and fighting blind had the potential to get them into a whole lot of trouble. Hinata continued to watch with rapt attention, as if captivated by spectacle that Sora was making, while secretly activating her Byakugan)and the echoes.

Sora kept right on talking. "The whole 'I'm a big bad guy' look. Seems like you would be like most other villains in the East, most of whom seem to be thrilled to introduce themselves over and over again. At least in my experience. Honestly, what is it with you guys in the East? I mean, I was looking through that bingo book thing that you guys use over there, and it was, quite frankly, rather disappointing."

Shiraku arched one eyebrow high up on his forehead. "Disappointing? I must confess, you have peaked my interest. I hope that you are able to elaborate on that subject."

"Well, you guys lack unique characteristics."

"Unique characteristics?" The eyebrow arched impossibly higher. Behind him, Nadare started to growl, although it was uncertain if it was directed at Sora or his partner.

There was something funny about the echoes surrounding the tall, thin man. The other man's were fairly straightforward. He reverberated with the kind of waves that she had found in the snow. If he was from Rock, then it must be some sort of earth-related ability. Earthquakes, or something like that. But the other man's echoes didn't make any kind of sense. Almost every echo that surrounded him had the characteristic marks of a scroll, the combination of twisted strings; solid chakra patterns that suggested lifting part of the power from marks of some sort, and the twisted knots that came from using blood. Hinata gulped. Those knots were everywhere.

Sora's voice was calm and patient, as if she was talking to little children. "See, in the West, we have villains with large personalities. One walks into a bar, everyone knows who he is. He has his own trademarks; his own special things that he does that make him different from all other villains out there."

She dropped her voice to a low whisper. "You certainly wouldn't catch them dead wearing matching coats." She shook her head, as if still disappointed in the idea. "Honestly. Matching coats are for gangs, clans; that sort of thing. Not for a collection of high class criminals. It takes away from your individuality. Yasu and I certainly never wore matching outfits. And we almost never had to introduce ourselves."

Hinata focused in on the echoes of one particular jutsu whose echoes were still fairly strong. There were the knots caused by the blood, but they didn't seem to form a pattern of binding, so he wasn't using it for summoning. She tried looking at the base of the pattern, the solid frame that gave the jutsu its basic structure. It was too regular, too perfect to have been created at the same time as the rest of the jutsu. It had to have been lifted from somewhere else; a scroll or some other type of drawn pattern…

She gasped lightly and took an involuntary step back.

Naruto turned to look at her. "Hina-chan?" he asked quietly. She turned to look at him. Her eyes were filled will a myriad of different emotions: confusion, horror, disbelief; they all played in her wide pale eyes.

"Well, that is an absolutely fascinating theory you have on how to be a villain, and I must say that you certainly have a rather unique view of things, but matching coats aside, I have to say that you exhibit a rather disappointingly limited view."

"Limited view of what?"

"Of ways to handle you enemies." He laughed. "Did you think that I would not realize what you were doing? I have been trailing you for months now. I know how the three of you do everything. You stall by making an idiot out of yourself while she evaluates what's going on using that nice little scanning thing." He grinned wickedly at Hinata. "Go on, little girl, tell everyone what you've learned." Hinata just stood staring at him in horror. "Cat got your tongue? Well, I suppose I can just demonstrate."

Shiraku reached up and took off his coat.

There were half a million jokes that Sora could have made about the situation in front of them, but something held her back. Maybe it was the fact that this situation had now gone well beyond the realms of bizarre. She almost wished she had time to haul out her camera and take a couple of good snapshots of this guy; even with corroborating witnesses, no one was going to believe her when she described him.

He was wearing a loincloth, for heaven's sake! Or maybe a miniskirt was a better description. Whatever it was, it wasn't covering much more than the bare essentials, leaving the rest of his body out in the open air. He seemed to be striking some sort of pose, like a model in some sort of macabre fashion spread. It would have been absolutely hilariously funny if it wasn't for the fact that he had just established himself as being the one in control of the situation. The enemy knew all about them, down to how much information they were going to be able to collect.

It turned out that his face had only been the beginning. His body was completely tattooed. Every inch of skin was covered in white markings, forming patterns all over him.

Sora tilted her head slightly to one side looking at the marks. Maybe she shouldn't have made the cracks about lack of individuality.

He grinned, sending a shiver down all three of their spines. It was just plain creepy.

"Now, perhaps you will learn how to look beyond the coats," he said, his silvery-blue hair shifting over his shoulders. Out of nowhere, a kunai appeared, spinning around in the fingers of his right hand. Suddenly, he grabbed it firmly and sliced across the fingers of his left hand.

He was starting something. But what, they didn't know.

Sora turned to look over her shoulder at the pair standing behind her. "Hinata!" she yelled.

"I think it's the tattoos. I think he utilizes them like you would a scroll and uses them to bump the power of his jutsu," she said somewhat hesitantly.

"You think! You can't be more specific?" Sora questioned.

"I've never seen anything like it before! I can't be sure of exactly what he does!"

"Oh, you're quite right about what I do, little girl." His smile broadened. "Allow me to demonstrate."

He raked bloody fingers down his arm. "Lighting Storm no Jutsu."


	30. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

It had always struck Sora as rather odd that Fire Country was the most habitable of all the lands of the East. For somewhere that sounded like it should be covered in volcanoes and molten lava, Fire Country had surprisingly little fire and a surprisingly large amount of trees. She had heard from Naruto about the training with the leaf that gave the hidden village its name, but she suspected it had more to do with the fact that the founders had wanted to make sure that the rest of the world knew that there were, in fact, leafy green things in Fire Country. Because there sure weren't in a lot of the other countries.

The Hidden Village of Rock in Earth Country was exactly what the name implied; rocky. However, the full extent of this rockiness was almost impossible to understand unless you went there yourself. Earth Country was huge and sparsely-populated because there was so little vegetation to keep anyone alive and Rock barely would have counted as a village. Most of the people lived in houses carved into the sides of the deep canyons that dredged their way through the country, making due with the sparse vegetation that grew along the riverbanks. They lived away from the light of day, stripped away from the rest of the world.

This was where Nadare had grown up; a huge, hulking man who towered over the rest of his brethren. Within the confined space of the tunnels of rock, his sheer mass had startled people, but nothing more. He was well-known for being a rather gentle giant, and while he had not proven to be anything special, he was generally liked and respected. He didn't seem to connect with others very well, but that was not too great a cause of concern. After all, he loved his country. He was something of an outcast, not someone you would personally hang out with, but not someone you would object to being around.

That is, until the day he killed his entire family and more than half the people in the small village he lived in. With one giant wave of chakra, he collapsed part of the cliff where two hundred or so Rock villagers had made their home. Then he turned and walked away, leaving the survivors to scream after him one question he refused to answer; why?

By the time Shiraku had partnered up with Nadare, he had become a quiet giant in the underworld, partially because he was simply such an enigma. He was a mercenary, but he turned down some jobs and accepted others with seemingly no logical pattern. He would settle down for a few years and not work at all, once even going so far as to take a wife and have a child. And then one day he killed them both and left to wander again. His unpredictability was one of the things that made him so feared. You didn't know when he was going to turn.

To Shiraku, Nadare's shifting personality was an almost insufferable secret. He was constantly trying to decide if Nadare's actions were part of a carefully-crafted persona or truly the random splattering of things they seemed to be. It was actually this that had brought the two men together. Shiraku was the king of carefully crafted personas, and he was constantly trying to decide if Nadare had somehow managed to create one that was actually better than his. Nadare, for his part, was the only other member of the Akatsuki who could stand Shiraku.

Shiraku was fond of saying that he had always known he was evil, a fact that he enjoyed telling people about in length; multiple times if possible. He used to stare at the mirror, looking at his pale hair and skin, and simply know that he was destined to be one of the most evil men to walk the face of the earth. It was an attitude that made a number of the other members of the Akatsuki rather irritated, but they couldn't deny the man's skill. Whether it was a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy or not, Shiraku was one of the more truly dastardly men among them, and, most importantly of all, he was willing to go to great lengths to prove it.

And so Shiraku always did the dirty work. He was proud of the fact that he was a villain worthy of striking fear into the hearts of his victims. He was an absolute sadist, among other things. But Cloud nins had always brought a certain level of extra unease to those around them.

Lightning Country was thus named for a very simple reason. In some bizarre twist of nature, the basin in which Lightning Country sat was filled from mountain peak to mountain peak by a constant storm that laced the sky with lightning. Strategically, it was one of the best protected of the countries in the East. The sun never shone, the lightning flashing frequently enough to provide sufficient, if sporadic, light. It was a generally considered fact that the lack of a clear day and night drove everyone in Lightning slightly batty.

The government of Lightning was one of the most corrupt of countries of the East. It was not, as many believe, ruled by a Kage, but in truth secretly run by a few clans who possessed bloodlines and put a king of straw on the throne. The clans had inter-married and complexly inter-connected, but always struggling with and within each other for greater power. As a result, the rest of the country was lawless and falling apart. It was a no-man's land that few dared to enter.

The Hidden Village of Cloud was so called because it was in a virtually permanent fog. As opposed to Mist, where there was a light haze of water, the air in Cloud was almost permanently in a state of saturation, the streets difficult to navigate in a fog so dense that it seemed almost impenetrable. People simply disappearing in the fog was not an uncommon occurrence. Many were the tales of people who had been seen entering the Hidden Village of Cloud but never came out again, sometimes vanishing from a group of companions in the time it took to walk a single block.

Shiraku had left Lightning Country at the age of six in order to find the answer to a simple question; how to compensate for his lack of bloodline limit. If he wanted to be evil, he was going to have to be powerful as well; after all, what was the point of being evil if one was weak? He could be cruel, and even among the Cloud nins he was considered one of the cruelest, but that wasn't going to get him where he wanted. As long as he stayed in Cloud, he was going to be treated as sub-standard for his lack of a bloodline limit and never admitted to the ranks of the ruling clans.

So he left Lightning behind in search of a way to truly become powerful. And while he was only a fair hand at most things, he found he had two strengths; his active attempts to do the cruelest things possible in every situation possible, and an uncanny talent with scrolls. He could even tweak what he wanted the scroll to do beyond the writing. But scrolls were awkward; they needed to constantly be re-made, and they didn't quite have the finesse he was looking for.

That was when he came up with the idea for the tattoos.

By the time the Akatsuki began to form, creating loose plans and gathering their members, Shiraku was completely covered in white tattoos running in lines and curves all over his body. A slice of a knife across his fingertips, and he was ready to draw the line of blood down his thigh or across his stomach. He knew exactly where to draw to get the desired jutsu; just where to tweak it to get the desired effect.

He was however, much to his disappointment, not much more than a common criminal. He had killed a number of people with powerful bloodline limits and eliminated entire clans down to their children, but he wasn't the legend he wanted to be. He wanted to be someone whose very name sent shivers down the spines of grown men. He wanted to be someone whose legend would live on long after he was gone.

So when the chance had come to join the Akatsuki, he had jumped at it.

Itachi had protested his being brought in. Shiraku, however, had some very valuable assets when it came to setting up the plan that united the original ten Akatsuki together. It was his skills with scrolls that made the plan possible at all. However, his part was finished, and as soon as that happened, watching his back had become a top priority.

The Akatsuki were not some brotherhood of S-Class criminals who wanted what was best for the group. They were not people who believed in fair rewards for good work. They were even more cutthroat with each other than they were with the rest of the world. Shiraku knew that it was only a matter of time until someone within the organization stepped up to get rid of him. He was the weakest of the group, and unless he made a statement that said that he was still of potential value to the plan, he would not live to see its end; and if he died now, he would be lucky to get a footnote in history.

And so he was making his play to remain valuable now, while there was still time. Now, before Itachi could nab the boy, he was going to bring Akatsuki the keystone to their plans. Then when the time came to reap the rewards of their actions, he would still be alive to receive his share.

His destiny was at hand.

The tattoos on his arm seemed to glow slightly and rise off the skin as he called out the name of the technique. The marks twisted on his arms, swirled around, and then started to stretch as Shiraku lifted his hand away from the skin. They started to grow and pulse, stretching longer and longer between his arm and his hand.

"Scatter!" Sora screamed.

They all ran in opposite directions, trying to get away from the two Akatsuki members. The heat from the lightning was starting to heat the air and the snow around Shiraku's feet. As the power built, the lightning started to strike out away from him, sending deafening claps of thunder into the air. They increased into a frenzy as he pumped more and more chakra into the jutsu.

Finally it reached its peak, and Shiraku turned towards Sora, now a good fifty yards away. He grinned. This was what he lived for.

"Release!" he screamed; the sound waves from the thunder were enough to throw someone to the ground, and the sudden shock of heat from the bolts of lightning shot past them It extended in all directions in a wide circle, and it was growing faster then they could run.

"Shit!" Sora cursed. She looked back over her shoulder at Shiraku. He was focused on her, and from what she could make out through the light, the lightning was moving towards her because of it. Good; that gave the kids a chance to get away.

She gasped in pain as one of the lightning bolts hit her shoulder. Gritting her teeth, she continued to run, trying to apply pressure to the wound with the opposite hand. Another bolt hit her ankle. She staggered, but kept going. Finally, she got out of the range of the lightning and collapsed to her knees.

Peeling her hand away from the wound, she grimaced and hissed. Her shoulder was a bloody mess. Her ankle, protected by the leather in her boot, seemed to be in better condition, but still not good enough to walk on.

She couldn't go back to fight like this; she would be more of a hindrance then a help. But self-healing was hard and took time; time she wasn't sure she had. But she was going to have to take it.

"Come on Hinata; keep Naruto out of trouble," she muttered to herself, and set to work on her ankle.

Naruto got about two hundred yards away from the man and stopped. He seemed to be at the limit of the jutsu, but he was so far away that he could barely make out the two men standing there, and he couldn't see Sora at all.

He stared at the men in the center of the jutsu. Akatsuki. The men who had been chasing after him for over three years had finally caught up to him, and apparently they'd been watching him for a year. All this time they had been watching, waiting for him to get to a point where they could easily snatch him. And they were going to kill Hinata and Sora to do it.

An odd feeling of panic rose up in his throat. They were his family; the people who were more precious to him than anything else in the world. The three of them had gotten into a lot of tight situations together; first with the Kaze, and then in their excursions together into the west. He had vowed that he would never let them die, and had never doubted his ability to keep his promise.

It was easy for him to be fearless when he didn't know what he was up against. But knowing that these were the best of the best, and having seen people who gave him chills with their abilities, there was a small nagging section in the corner of Naruto's mind that said that he wasn't going to be strong enough to save them.

He shook his head, as if trying to jar the thought out of his head. He was talking about keeping Hinata and Sora safe; he was going to do it no matter what. It didn't matter what he came up against; he was just going to have to keep fighting. No matter what.

He knelt down to try and hide himself while he thought. He squinted at the two men. They looked to be about the same height. He frowned. Nadare had been significantly taller than Shiraku when he had seen them before. The coat billowed out around him, partially hiding it, but he was definitely crouching down. And the lightning wasn't hitting him.

Naruto drew his gaze back to look at the jutsu. Shiraku had his hand raised up as far as he could and the lightning extended from his wrist in a flat plane for a good ten feet. That flat area was where Nadare was hiding. From there it expanded in width up to the edges until it was thirty feet tall where it stopped in front of him. The pattern was hard to see because the lightning was so random, but it was there.

All the theory Yasu and Sora had insisted that he and Hinata had to learn came flooding back to him. That was too large an area for him to keep complete chakra control over, no matter how good he was. There had to be holes in control where he could slip into the center of the jutsu, and once he was there, he only had to stay low enough that the lightning wouldn't hit him. He just had to find the holes.

And to do that, he had to find Hinata.

He brought his hands up, index and middle fingers pressed together. He formed a cross in front of his chest. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he yelled.

Instantly there were three Narutos standing on the mountainside. The real one backed away slightly, while one crouched back down and the other one ran off around the edge of the jutsu towards Sora.

"Camouflage no Jutsu," he whispered, setting one hand down on the snow. The white of the snow started to bleed up his arm, turning him and his clothes the same color as the landscape. It wasn't a perfect disguise; your body was covered in a repetition of the colors below your palm. There was no way that it would work up close, but from a distance it generally succeeded in hiding your presence.

He started off towards where he had last seen Hinata.

As he approached her location, he swung his head around looking for her, nearly running into her in the process. There was a whispered, "Naruto-kun?" and the sound of a footstep to the side before a hand grabbed his wrist to stop him. He looked up, and there she was holding onto his hand.

"Ignore me?" he asked. She nodded.

Naruto felt rather stupid. Seeing through genjutsu still wasn't a strong point of his, but he should have been able to see her. The technique was one of her favorites. It was actually called Gliding Eyes no Jutsu because it caused people around you to simple glide over you without really noticing you were there. But 'ignore me' was what you were supposed to project out.

Learning it was a particularly fond memory; one from right when they had move in with Nori and Yasu. Yasu had explained it to Hinata, with a large amount of buildup, telling her how complicated but effective it was, and how it called a very specific mindset that was very difficult to maintain. Hinata had sat there nervously, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, waiting for Yasu to tell her what the horribly hard to maintain mindset was. Finally, it came out. She had to keep concentrating on getting the person to ignore her. Hinata stared at her for a second, and then said simply, "I can do that."

But the jutsu wasn't supposed to work very well if you were trying to look specifically for the person. The opponents could not be concentrating on you, and that was exactly what Naruto had been doing. Albeit, Hinata was very, very good at the technique, but he couldn't quite excuse himself because of that. He had nearly run right into her!

He shook the thought out of his head. He'd chalk it up to being distracted for now and work on it later.

"Hina-chan, are there holes in the jutsu?" he asked, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Holes?" she asked, startled eyes wide.

"You know…weak spots where we can sneak in. If we can get into the center, then the lightning can't get us. He can't maintain that level of chakra control for that entire area; there has to be a way that we can slip in."

"But…it's the Akatsuki!" she whispered harshly. There wasn't a limit to what these men were able to do, was there? They were the stuff of nightmares.

"Just look!" Naruto begged,turning her back towards the men. She gulped and activated her Byakugan

She watched as the chakra circled around the man, then closed her eyes and turned on the echoes.

The two men were still standing there in the middle of the snow, waiting for them to attack. She watched the echoes, the lines forming swirling patterns across the air. Shiraku had apparently stopped concentrating the chakra towards Sora. That was good; it meant he wasn't sure where any of them were and she could see how the lightning strikes moved naturally. The path that each lightning strike took left an echo of its presence behind, making it easy to see the form of the jutsu; a flat circular disc that expanded into walls of lightning. But what she was able to see that Naruto had not been able to was that the walls did not end at thirty feet. They weren't flat; they were curved, reversing back to form a thick discus of chakra that completely surrounded them.

It took her a good five minutes of staring to see how it worked. The whole disc was filled with chakra, and it was only when it clashed together at an odd angle with other chakra that the lightning could be formed. Shiraku was sending out waves of chakra that got bigger and bigger as they reached the edge of the circle. That was the only part of the jutsu he was really controlling. So that meant that when he concentrated the lightning in one direction…

She turned back to Naruto. "The only pattern that is there is the one you can see because he has only partial control over where the lightning bolts go. He triggers them more than anything else with waves of chakra. He can change the direction of the chakra he's sending out, but there isn't any pattern once they are created."

"There aren't any holes," she concluded, almost apologetically.

"What! But there has to be!" he exclaimed. "It's physically impossible for him to maintain that level of control over that large an area!"

"When he concentrates it in just one area, it opens a gap," she told him.

"I told you there were holes!" Naruto said triumphantly, only to see Hinata shaking her head.

"There are temporary gaps, but as soon as we get in range, we'll move into the area his chakra is occupying, which is basically the entire area around them. We wouldn't get more than a few feet in before he changed the direction of the lightning towards us."

"Well, is there any place it's only a few feet thick?" he asked.

"No; even at its thinnest, it's twenty feet or so!" she said, tears in her eyes. She hated to be the one to dash his hopes.

"Starting from where?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Where is it centered? On his hand?" She nodded. "So with his hand up in the air, the center's only a few feet below the surface of the snow. We'll be able to tunnel in!"

Hinata just stared at him. Tunneling under someone who had been using the earth and snow against them a few minutes ago didn't sound like a good idea to her. "What if they detect us?" she asked, trembling slightly, eyes wide with fear.

"How would they do that?" he asked, dismissing her fears, although he couldn't deny the fact that she was right. But he would not let the Akatsuki take him away from his family! He didn't care what the odds; he was going to push through. He started to form the seals to start Wind of Fire no Jutsu.

"Naruto-kun, this is the Akatsuki! We…we don't know w-what they can do!" she cried, voice low and slightly panicked-sounding. She tugged desperately on his jacket sleeve.

At the sound of her stutter, almost unheard of these days, he stopped and dropped his arms. "Fine; then we'll just wait here outside his range and let him tire himself out," Naruto ground out between his teeth. He hated waiting.

Hinata shook her head again. "He has that jutsu set up perfectly. The chakra goes out and then doubles back to form a sphere around him. It converges above and below him and then feeds back in a loop. Because the chakra he's putting out is retuning back to him, he'll be able to maintain it for a very long time." She bit her lower lip, then dared to offer a suggestion. "We should get Onee-chan and run."

But Naruto didn't think they could run. This was the Akatsuki; they had apparently been following them for months. Running wasn't going to do any good. He was shaken by the idea that men so powerful wanted to kill Hinata and take him away. So he pushed logic aside and went with pure faith in his own abilities, just like he was a kid again.

"What! Run! No way! We can take these guys!" he exclaimed almost angrily.

"But, Naruto-kun!" she whispered, and cringed. She hadn't seen him this reckless in a long time. Normally he thought things through these days, but sometimes…sometimes it felt like they were twelve again, and just getting their forehead protectors.

"We'll go in under the snow so that they won't be able to see us. I'll set up some shadow clones to get them to concentrate the lightning in one area, and then we can come up through the snow and grab them. It will just be a few feet. I know we can do it! Once we're in, I'll hit them with the Rasengan and you can seal up their chakra! Piece of cake!" He flashed her his trademark grin.

But it wasn't going to be a piece of cake; that much Hinata knew. Tears threatened to well up in her eyes. Nervously, she pressed her index fingers together, looking off towards the Akatsuki. She didn't want to fight them. Their presence threatened to take Naruto away from her, and at their level, she was sure that she had a better chance of keeping him if they ran away. Weren't they supposed to be hiding from the Akatsuki? Wasn't that the point of Naruto being here with Sora rather than back in Konoha?

He was charging in blindly again, counting on the force of his will alone to get them through; refusing to look and analyze the situation before beginning the attack. He never thought about what was going to happen in a fight for more than the next five minutes, and while his five-minute plans were often brilliant, they were nevertheless short-sighted. Over the past two and a half years he had gotten better and better, and so far they had always managed to squeak through, but there was no way that it could always work.

But if she didn't go in with him, he would go in alone.

She held back the tears and nodded, indicating that she would go ahead with his plan.

He grinned and crossed his fingers in front of him, calling up more shadow clones. Then, he ran through the seals and activated Wind of Fire no Jutsu, pushing his hand into the ground and melting the snow around it. He forged ahead into the snow bank, creating the start of a tunnel, before he turned and held his free hand out to her with a grin.

She hesitated for a second, then took his hand and allowed him to lead her into the tunnel.

"They're not attacking," Nadare said in a low rumble.

"Just wait a bit longer. It's been fifteen minutes since he sent the shadow clones out toward his sister; he won't be able to hold himself back much longer."

"It would be smarter for them to leave and try to position themselves better."

Shiraku rolled his eyes in frustration. "Nadare, I'm telling you, there's no way that the boy's not going to attack; especially considering that he's separated from Sora. He's never been able to put fights into perspective."

"What about the other girl?"

Shiraku gave a contemptuous snort. "That little thing? She does whatever he says! She probably knows that it's a bad idea, but will let him lead her onto the battlefield by the hand anyway."

"But-"

"No more buts!" Shiraku snarled. "Just be patient; he won't be able to hold himself back much longer."

And sure enough, a few minutes later Nadare felt movements just a few feet under the surface of the snow. He could feel the slight shifting below their feet. "They're tunneling in under us," he said quietly.

His partner sneered. "How pathetic! As if they could sneak up on us!" He ended the lightning storm. "Go ahead and force them up."

Nadare's brow creased slightly; then he brought his hands together, building up the chakra in-between them before slamming one hand down into the snow.

Naruto estimated that they were about halfway there when the quake hit. He had just enough time to shout "What the hell!" before the tunnel collapsed and he found himself being pushed through the snow, moving every which way. He struggled again the currents of snow, trying desperately to keep hold of Hinata's hand, until they were pulled in opposite directions and it was ripped out of his grasp. He couldn't even yell out to her; he could barely even breathe.

He felt himself being thrust violently in one direction, which way he couldn't tell, until he suddenly broke through the surface of the snow and went catapulting through the sky. He gulped for air and tried to twist himself to where he could see the enemy. He landed lightly on his feet facing them and howled in rage.

They had Hinata.

Nadare was holding her in a full nelson, his huge arms going under her small ones and his hands clenched together behind her head. Her arms had been forced wide so that they couldn't come together to perform seals and her head was pointed down at the snow. She looked dead, hanging like a cross from the huge man's arms, legsdangling helplessly in the air.

"Hinata!" Naruto yelled and charged at the two men head on, summoning more shadow clones. The bowl of the mountain filled with clones, littering the snow and all heading towards Nadare and Shiraku.

Shiraku pulled out his kunai, and, flipping it through the air, cut small gashes on the inside of both arms. He then brought the gashes together, hands to elbows, staring at the advancing clones from over his crossed arms. "Lightning Whips no Jutsu!" he yelled, raking his arms down each other. As they parted at his hand, a massive bolt of lightning formed between his palms. He thrust them apart, lengthening the lightning, sizzling and twisting in the air, crawling up to his elbows.

With a snap of his elbows he separated the bolt into two separate ropes, hanging like twisting snakes from his elbows, crackling in the air.

He raised one arm up across his face, watching as the clones advanced. His eyes narrowed and he brought his hand down and out in an arch. As it traveled, it grew until at the crest of the arch, it was almost fifty feet long. It swept through the army of clones, destroying each one it touched, taking out half.

Hanging back off to the side, Naruto growled. He was going to have to maneuver himself through Shiraku's cover in order to get the man.

Hinata was going to have to hang on.

He charged again, keeping his eyes on the whips of lightning. Shiraku started to move his arms in wide circles and spirals, moving the ropes across the plane in front of him. Naruto dodged and ducked, watching as the less-skilled shadow clones disappeared in puffs of smoke around him. He was getting closer and closer; twenty feet…ten feet…he was almost within striking distance.

He reached down to the pouch on his leg and pulled out a kunai. He pulled back his arm and prepared to strike.

Both whips hit him at the same time; one across the chest and one across the face. He screamed in pain as they stung and burned at the same time, searing through his shirt to the skin below. Their force picked him up off his feet and propelled him through the air. He went flying into a snowdrift, mercifully cold on burns that were red and blistering.

Shiraku laughed at him, lightning still hanging from his arms. "Are you really so naïve as to think that you'd be able to get me with something as simple as that?"

Naruto struggled to stand up against the pain in his chest. The burns were already starting to heal, but they were still stinging and itching like mad.

He needed a new plan.

Reaching down into the snow, he drew a line in the snow, followed by the curves and loops that formed the western script, spelling out the world "grow".

He held his hand up and started making seals, a different one in each hand. Two streams of chakra grew, flowing out of each palm. The chakra formed spiky balls in each hand, resting in curled fingers that formed a one handed seal. The center of each ball glowed blue, but at the ends of the spikes, one turned faintly green and the other orange.

Naruto brought the base of his palms together and raised them up over his head. The chakra balls banged against each other, protesting their proximity to each other. Naruto gritted his teeth and pushed his hands together, forcing the balls to become one. The force of the power vibrated through his entire body, but he held on, continuing to compress the chakra into a smaller and smaller ball.

"Iron Bamboo Forest no Jutsu!" he yelled, slamming his hands down into the middle of the word written in the snow. From just in front of his hand, tall stocks of black bamboo stared to spring out of the ground, shooting up into the sky. Naruto remained crouched, squinting through the rapidly growing bamboo towards his enemies, guiding where the trees grew.

The first line of bamboo shot out between Nadare and Shiraku, cutting them off from each other. Then it spiraled in, growing thick and dense around them, pinning them into place.

Shiraku reached out and touched one of the stalks of bamboo. It was shiny like regular black bamboo, but harder and colder. It wasn't living; it was made of cold iron, but somehow the jutsu allowed the iron to retain the flexibility of bamboo, bending in the wind. The snapback of the bent bamboo would be deadly and the leaves would slice through your skin easily.

The man smiled. He'd watched Naruto learn this technique. It was an impressive one, combining the life energy with the iron effectively when they were such opposites naturally.

Naruto ran through a few seals and then grabbed the nearest stalk of bamboo. Red hot heat surged down the length of the stalk and into the ground, melting the snow around it. It traveled through the roots, connecting from plant to plant, running the heat up the length of the bamboo and into the leaves.

The forest swayed and crackled with heat. The snow melted away, leaving the ground a tangled network of iron roots.

Shiraku smiled. Very impressive indeed. He had effectively cut the two men off from each other and changed the landscape completely. The boy was a fast thinker with quick reflexes; he would be able to navigate the treacherous ground and use the bamboo to his advantage, controlling where the heat went. It tilted the playing field in his favor.

Naruto jumped up and grabbed a hold of one of the stalks, holding on with one hand as he put his feet up and balanced on its side. He had Nadare boxed in, and hopefully that would prevent him from going off anywhere with Hinata while he dealt with Shiraku. Plus, he could still move through the forest without much trouble, so he should be able to strike where his enemies could not. He had the upper hand.

But it wasn't going to be enough.

He started moving though the trees, trading bended stalk for bended stalk, slowly coming closer and closer to Shiraku. The man just stood in the close confines of the bamboo, watching the trees around him. He smiled slightly and nicked his finger on his kunai, then ran the bloody finger across the small of his back.

High in the bamboo above Shiraku's head, Naruto prepared to attack. He didn't expect to actually get Shiraku with his next onslaught. But with any luck he would be able to drive him into the bamboo. So far the tattooed man had shows no indication that he liked to use taijutsu or even genjutsu. In the bamboo forest, he would have to work hard enough to keep from getting burned or whacked that he shouldn't be able to use seals or his damn tattoos.

But Shiraku beat him to the opening move. Out from his back ripped two long knives of chakra. With a yell, he turned in a tight circle, moving the knives in a wide arc. They sliced through the iron bamboo stalks easily, sending them toppling to the ground.

Naruto yelled as the stalks fell on and around him. The iron sizzled against his already torn skin as his plan backfired. He managed to release the heat aspect of the jutsu as he fell, but not before he had sustained several bad burns.

He collapsed, slightly dizzy with pain, under the weight of the iron bamboo. Damn it! He couldn't even move under the weight.

Shiraku walked over to where Naruto lay prone underneath the bamboo. A few more slashes of chakra cut away the bamboo on top of the boy. He reached down and hauled Naruto halfway to his feet.

"You're lucky you have that Kyuubi, you know that? Anyone else would be dead by now, between the lightning and these burns. But you survive without fail, which is a good thing for me, because I intend to capture you, not kill you."

He grinned. "Still, it takes a little time for the wounds to heal, does it not? And until they do, you're still paralyzed by the pain, aren't you?" He raised one hand, glowing blue with chakra. "Let's just see how long we can keep you like that."

The hand landed over his face with a sickening hiss and horrible sting.

Naruto screamed.

Still holding onto Hinata, Nadare watched dispassionately as Shiraku toyed with the boy. They should just capture him and leave, but Shiraku always had to do it his way, and his way was always dramatic. Evil couldn't just win. Evil had to triumph. But Nadare was starting to wonder if Shiraku's theatrics weren't going to make things take too long.

The sister could return at any minute. And she was one they were going to have to look out for.

Suddenly, his world started to melt before his eyes. The sky bled down, covering everything in a pure blue. Then a knife's edge of wind stabbed him between the shoulder blades.

Nadare stiffened and loosened his hold on Hinata just enough for her to flow out of his grip. His world went back to normal, the genjutsu ending. His eyebrows pulled together. He had forgotten that she used one-handed seals, and therefore his normal way of holding captives wouldn't work.

Hinata flipped slightly in the air, landing on her hands and kicking her legs out, hitting the inside of Nadare's knees. She turned back over onto her feet and started to run towards Naruto, winding her way through the bamboo.

The man bent over and rubbed his knees. There had been some sort of chakra spike in those kicks, making his knees spasm painfully. He could push in some elementary healing chakra, but it was still going to be a few minutes before he was able to move.

Ducking her way through the bamboo, Hinata tried to make her way over to Naruto. Her bloodline limit was on and her mind completely focused on getting to him. A curiously strong protective instinct had been awakened in her and she was filled with a determination and fearlessness she had never felt before.

She cleared the bamboo and slid across the ground past Shiraku, aimed for the hand that was wrapped around Naruto's neck. The base of her palm landed firmly against Shiraku's elbow, shooting chakra through his arm and breaking the tendons.

But just as her hand make contact, Shiraku's hand, still pulsing with the burning chakra he had been using to torture Naruto, shot out from under his opposite arm and hit her in the stomach. They both yelped in pain, Hinata flying out into the forest again, Shiraku dropping Naruto and clutching his elbow to his body.

Shiraku watched the petite girl fall in the bamboo forest. He grinned and looked down at Naruto. "Let's see how your little girlfriend does in an earthquake in all that lovely bamboo," he said, raising his hand to signal Nadare.

Naruto could see the power gathering in his fist. "No!" he yelled and lurched to his feet, ignoring the tremendous pain that shot through him; but he knew it was too late. There was no way he could get to Nadare in time to stop him, and he wouldn't get to Hinata in time to protect her.

Suddenly, an invisible hand grabbed Nadare's arm and started to pull him off through the trees, banging against the remains of the bamboo forest as he went. Shiraku watched as the huge man cleared the trees and was thrown like a feather across the snow and out of their range of sight.

"That's enough!"

The three who remained turned and looked at the voice. Sora stood thirty feet away, arms crossed over her chest, sunglasses pulled down over her eyes.

Naruto jumped to his feet and started after Hinata who was struggling to her feet.

Sora and Shiraku continued to stare at each other. When she spoke, her voice was low and dark. "You two go hide. I'll take care of this asshole." She jerked her head towards Shiraku.

The words stopped Naruto in his tracks. Twisting his neck to look at them, he glared at his sister. "What! I'm not going to go hide!" Naruto yelled at her.

"They're too powerful for you! The other one should be gone long enough for you to find an effective hiding spot until I can finish them off!"

"But I was holding my own against them until you came!" he argued.

"You were about to get killed! Now go!" She turned back to Shiraku.

Shiraku smirked at her. "Ah I suppose that it is my time to play with the big sister."

She smirked back. "Damn straight," Sora replied, and a spike of wind sucker-punched him in the stomach, sending him flying off in the opposite direction of Nadare. She started to run after him, turning to yell at the two of them over her shoulder. "Now!"

With one last look towards Sora, Naruto and Hinata turned to go. Once they were out of sight, Naruto turned towards where Nadare had disappeared to.

"Come on, I think he went this way," he said, starting down a steep incline.

Hinata had known that they weren't going to go hide, but it didn't make her any less nervous. "Are you sure we should do this?" she asked timidly.

He turned to look back at her, eyes serious. "Nee-chan can't handle both of them by herself. If he comes back and we're hiding, it's like sacrificing her."

She couldn't stop thinking that they were sacrificing all three of them this way, but she pushed it down. In the end, she would rather die here then lose either one of them.

They continued down the side of the mountain.


	31. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

Sora caught up with Shiraku in the next trough of snow. She jumped over the crest of the hill just as he shot a bolt of lightning towards her side. Sora dodged it by twisting in the air and landing on the ground a few feet away.

She threw up an earth barrier as soon as she landed, preventing him from landing his next strike. He was using the lightning whips again, pounding against her wall. She had two choices; try and dodge the lightning and get in to attack him close range, or stay out of the range of the lightning bolts and try to attack him with long range jutsus.

The better choice was almost always the one the enemy wouldn't expect. She could hear the sound of the wall cracking around her as the lightning started to tear down her defenses. She had to work fast.

Carefully, she began to gather chakra on the palms of her hands and feet, focusing to spread it over her upper arms and calves. Then she compacted the chakra as tightly as she could, creating a fabric of tiny interconnected loops that flexed and fit her like a second skin.

When the lightning came crashing through the wall, she grabbed it. The force continued to push her through the opposite side of her shelter, her feet skidding across the snow. She looked partially over her shoulder and saw the other lightning bolt coming towards her fast from behind.

She jumped and bent her body in half sideways, placing her feet on top of the lightning bolt. Her weight sent it crashing to the ground, just missing the other bolt as it went zooming by above her.

She pivoted on the lightning bolt and grinned at Shiraku. Its power had come from its speed and flexibility, and now that she had taken away both of those, it wasn't hard to control.

Carefully placing her feet, Sora worked her way up the lighting whip, pinning it to the ground with each step, talking while she walked. "You remind me of some dancers I saw once in Shambhala. They had these ribbons on sticks and they kept twirling them around and around making little curly cues in the air. But they wore more clothes than you."

The next swing of the other lighting bolt came down low, aimed at making her jump and release the bolt she had caught. Instead, she reached down with her hands and grabbed the whip and flipped herself over. As she turned upright again, she scissored the second lightning bolt with her feet, wrapped it around one ankle, and hooked herself deep into the ground with chakra. She smiled at Shiraku as he pulled on the lightning bolt twined around her feet, but she didn't fall.

"Done yet? You know, these things aren't really hard to deal with once you get them stopped. There's not actually that much power in them," she taunted as Shiraku seethed. "If you're what the average Akatsuki is like, I don't see what Obaa-san was so worked up about."

Shiraku took a breath and visibly calmed himself. "Ah, but what are you going to do now? You're all tied up, so to speak."

Sora rolled her eyes. "Puns. I've actually managed to meet up with a bad guy who uses puns."

He grinned. "You're not answering my question," he reminded her.

"The one about what am I going to do now?" Her eyes darkened behind her sunglasses. She pulled slightly on his ropes and grinned. "Whatever I want."

She formed the chakra in her mind into the jutsu she wanted and released it. Fire licked up the lightning ropes and over Shiraku's arms. He yelped in surprise as the fire engulfed him. The lightning bolts disintegrated, leaving Sora free to watch him turn in the flames. He twisted in on himself and then exploded outward, sending bits of flame flying everywhere.

Breathing hard, he turned and glared at her.

Sora shrugged. "Didn't really think I'd be able to get you in one blow," she said in an almost indifferent voice.

"How did you do that?" Shiraku asked suspiciously.

"How did I do what?" Sora said, starting to arrange the chakra in her mind for her next attack.

Shiraku gritted his teeth. "You didn't use seals," he said with a hiss. The odd thing was that there was a thread of delight in it, as if something was lurking on his horizon that he was going to be very happy to see.

"Oh, like this?" Sora asked, and hit him with another jutsu. The ice around him melted into water and shot up to wrap around him in large, thick ropes. They were quickly followed by another attack; large metal spikes rose out of the ground to surround him, completely caging him in.

One of the spikes grew up next to Sora and she yanked it up out of the ground. Lifting it up in both hands she walked over to where Shiraku was imprisoned. "And so ends the life of one-"

She was cut off by the explosion. It was the same method that he had used to get out of her last jutsu, but ten times more powerful. Water, iron, and Sora went flying through the air. She desperately put up shields to deflect the wildly-swinging spikes that threatened to impale her. She landed fifty feet away, panting and disoriented. Looking around, she spotted Shiraku watching her.

He smiled. "You have lovely eyes," he said. Sora's hand reached up to her face. Shit. Her sunglasses had flown off in the explosion. And from the expression on his face, he knew what family had purple eyes, and what else that family had.

He laughed loud and hard with an edge of delighted mania. "I can't believe it! A real live Ranmyaku! You were all supposed to have died in that plague years ago!"

"Apparently not," she said dryly as she pulled herself to her feet. She wasn't going to tell him he had wrong information about how her clan was destroyed. Plague, poison; let him think what he wanted.

A gleam entered his eye. "Ah, but you are the last."

"As far as I know. But I suppose if I am alive, there could be another as well." But there wasn't. Her father had been a meticulously thorough man, and when he had destroyed her clan, he had destroyed all except what he thought he could use.

"Ah; true, true. These things never seem to work out the way they should."

Sora's eyes narrowed. Plagues generally weren't things that 'worked out.' Did this man know more than she thought?

Shiraku smiled. "But in this case, I have to say I'm glad."

"Really?" she asked dryly.

"Oh yes! Now I get a chance to be the one to actually end the bloodline. You will be the last person to bare the taifuugan."

She smiled slightly. "You're right, I will be. But not because I'm going to die here."

"Really?" he asked, drawing out the vowels and arching one eyebrow. "You have no idea how many bloodline limits I have destroyed. I have proven myself to be just as capable as all those born with power in their genes already. I have surpassed many who have been given natural gifts of incredible ability."

"I don't see what the hell that has to do with this fight."

"Don't you? Destroying the last of one of the most powerful bloodline limits in the world, the last daughter of the legendary Ranmyaku clan, is the icing on cake. I'll kill one of legends of the West, half of the dGra Klesha, a prize in and of themselves. Plus, I will be the one who brings the Kyuubi to the Akatsuki, trumping Itachi."

"And that's what you really care about, isn't it?" Sora said, smiling slightly. "You just want to be regarded as the most evil man in the Akatsuki."

"Not just in the Akatsuki. The most evil man in the world. Without a bloodline limit, without a clan. Just because I'm evil." He gave Sora a sinister smile.

She burst out laughing. He glared as she doubled over, peals of laughter ringing in the air.

"What's so funny?" he growled at her.

"You! You in your mini-skirt and your tattoos, worrying so much about how evil everyone thinks you are and trying to kill off bloodline limits. I'm sorry about that comment I made earlier about you guys not having enough individual personality. I have to say Shiraku, you really take the cake. Do you realize how pathetic you are? My god, how the hell did you get into the Akatsuki anyway?"

He looked at her incredulously. How dare she laugh at him!

"I'll tell you what, pretty boy. I'll give you the ultimate chance to prove just how skilled you are. I'll fight you without my bloodline limit if you'll fight without your tattoos. That way, it will all be our own personal skill and nothing else. You can overwhelm me with just how evil you are." She smiled flirtatiously at him.

Shiraku seethed, but didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry. Were you so busy trying to invent a bloodline limit for yourself that you forgot to train anything else? I suppose there are limits to what you can do."

He refused to let this woman insult him like this! He'd show her what he was capable of doing!

Shiraku sliced another finger and drew it across the opposite palm before forming a fist. The power gathered in his closed hand, the glowing light of chakra slipping out from between his fingers. He pulled his hand back and held it to the side of his face. "Ninpou Kuchiyose: Tian-mu!" he yelled, opening his fist and thrusting it out towards Sora.

Lightning cracked in his palm, exploding out into a rolling wave of electricity. Sora watched as the lightning started to shift and change form, turning into the blue glowing figure of a woman. Long robes flowed back from her arms and she screeched with a grimace as she raced across the surface of the snow towards Sora. Her arms stretched out, trying to force Sora into her embrace.

A circular wall of snow came up around Sora, concealing her from sight for a moment. Shiraku smirked. Snow was made of water, and water conducted electricity quite well. Using snow as a shield was pointless. The arms of the woman embraced the walls of snow.

Sora exploded out over the top of the water, followed by a huge flow of mud. The lightning woman looked up as the mud slid down over her face. It flowed over her robes and down onto the snow. It was immediately followed by a wave of fire, baking the mud into hard-packed dirt.

Landing softly on her feet, Sora watched as the dome of dirt finished baking. It had been a tough combination to put together, summoning dirt, water, and fire so soon after one another and weaving them so tightly together.

She had defeated the lightning lady, whatever she had been, and she was fairly sure that she had egged him into using his most powerful jutsu while she was still relatively fresh. The taifuugan was draining to the extreme, and even doing things partially with it and partially with seals, she ran the risk of running out of chakra far before her opponent.

It was why Nanashi had sent her to the Kaze to train. Her father had trained her too heavily on ninjutsu, planning on using his seal on her to increase her chakra stores to incredible levels and then simply letting her loose on a battlefield to destroy all those around her. She would be able to stand perfectly still, no seals, no yelling, no fighting, and create a frenzy of jutsu around her. She would become the taifuugan; the eye of the storm.

But without the seal of her father, there were limits on how large Sora could get her chakra reserves. She had worked hard to make them as big as possible, but they weren't anything incredible; certainly nothing like her brother's. So she had to conserve, use strategy, and choose carefully when she was going to strike.

And half of that was manipulating people into doing stupid things. With any luck, she had gotten past the worst of what he could throw at her.

With a painful-sounding crack, the lightning woman burst through the wall of mud and went howling up into the air. Sora started and groaned as she watched the lightning woman crackle and turn angry eyes on her. Okay, so maybe Shiraku's best wasn't going to be defeated in one move.

Beyond smothering her, Sora wasn't sure how she could defeat the lightning woman. Her only hope was to somehow take him out and pray that the seemingly-sentient lightning creature he had summoned would follow him to hell.

She leapt off towards her left, heading towards Shiraku as fast as she could, feet barely touching the ground before she pushed off again. The woman screamed behind her, coming up fast. Sora tried to keep her eyes on Shiraku. She watched as he put up another shield of lightning to keep her out.

The three of them converged at the same time. Sora leapt in the air and aimed a spin back kick at Shiraku's head just as the woman of lightning overtook her. As Sora tried to encase herself in dirt, the two lightning jutsus met and exploded into a fit of rage.

Her kick never hit. Sora went flying through the sky, the dirt being ripped from her body and the lightning slicing across her skin. She landed a hundred yards away, slightly dazed and confused. She shook her head, trying to clear it, and looked up just in time to see the lighting woman bearing down on her.

Turning her bloodline limit back on, she threw up a shield as quickly as she could. The woman crashed against it and screamed. Drawing herself up, she continued to hit the wall and howl while Sora grit her teeth. It was taking a lot out of her to keep that shield up.

Behind the lightning woman, Sora could hear Shiraku laughing. He stepped out from behind the woman's sleeve to smirk down at her.

"And look whose laughing now. It must be taking everything you have in order to keep that shield up. In a few more minutes you'll have drained the rest of your chakra reserves and you'll be dead."

Naruto and Hinata followed the skid marks Nadare had made across the snow, until they reached the edge of a large cliff. Peering over the edge, they could see him standing at the bottom. He was fully upright, but he had apparently not moved from the place where he had landed once Sora's jutsu had ended. He was waiting for them.

Naruto looked down at him and then at Hinata, who was crouched down next to him. "How did you get away?"

She looked into his face and just kept herself from wincing. His face was healing, but she could still make out the burn marks from Shiraku's hands. "I caught him in Endless Ice Skies. It caught him off guard because it was a one-handed seal. I took out his knees and ran for it," she explained. "But I don't know if I could do it again. He was mentally preoccupied at the time and he didn't have his hands completely free because he was holding onto me. He couldn't form any seals."

"Of course you can do it again. All we have to do is distract him again." He stood up and crossed his fingers over his chest, getting ready to create more shadow clones.

"You're going to charge in again?" she asked quietly, her voice trembling slightly in fear.

He looked down at her, startled. "I'm not charging in. We have a plan. I'm going to distract him and you're going to get him in a genjutsu."

She pushed the butterflies in her stomach down and forced herself to speak. "How are you going to distract him?"

He looked at her as if he didn't quite get what he she was asking. "I don't know exactly what he can do yet, so I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to attack, figure out exactly what he can do, and then wing it."

Okay, so that was reckless, but not completely illogical. "But Naruto-kun, this is the Akatsuki! They're some of the most powerful ninja in the world! We're good and we can defeat a lot of people. The Chuunin test would be easy now, and I'm pretty sure that we're at the same level as many of the Jounins back in Konoha, but what we're dealing with is on a completely different level! You can't just wing it!"

"Well, do you have any better ideas?" he asked, more sharply than he intended. "If we don't do something, Sora's going to be left trying to deal with both of them alone! She's not strong enough to do that!"

"You're right," said a deep rumble off to their right.

Startled, they launched themselves to their feet and into a fighting stance as soon as they heard the voice. Nadare stood a few yards away from them, wrapped up in his great black cloak.

Hinata gulped. There were no footprints leading to where he was standing. How did such a large man manage that?

The man continued, face completely blank. "She wouldn't be able to take on both of us. But she might be able to defeat Shiraku. He is the weakest out of all of us."

Naruto stood tensed, ready to see what Nadare was going to throw next. But the man just seemed to stand there, observing and waiting. The silence went on and on, thickening the air and making it difficult to breathe.

The thoughts in Naruto's head were going every which way, trying to figure out what the hell Nadare was doing and how he was going to distract the man long enough for Hinata to catch him in the genjutsu. But he seemed determined to simply stare at the pair with an indifference that sent shivers up Naruto's spine.

"I'm not going to try to capture you," Nadare finally rumbled.

Naruto looked shocked and then outraged. "What the hell do you mean?" he asked angrily.

"That's not my part of the plan. I have other things I am supposed to be doing. Unlike Shiraku, I know better than to foolishly disobey the wishes of those more powerful than myself."

"Itachi?" Naruto asked through his teeth.

"Among others. Shiraku is committing an act of desperation. Power in the Akatsuki is a delicate balance, but never has it swung in his favor. Capturing you would not have changed that as much as he thinks. "

"So what are you going to do then?" Naruto asked angrily. Hinata watched the man carefully from slightly behind Naruto's shoulder. She couldn't figure out what in the world was going on.

"I'm waiting to see if Sora of the dGra Klesha is able to kill Shiraku. If she can, then this little bump in the plan will have been overcome, and things will return to their correct path. All will fall into our hands."

Naruto balanced his weight and prepared to attack. "Like I'm going to let that happen!" he yelled and covered the hillside with shadow clones.

Nadare simply raised his hand and there was a pulse. It knocked Naruto and Hinata completely to the ground and eliminated all of the clones.

"Don't be foolish. You cannot hope to stop me."

Naruto struggled to his feet again only to be knocked down by another pulse. "Damn it!" he whispered fiercely into the snow. The pressure pulsed again, but this time it didn't stop. It pressed him down, deeper and deeper into the snow. He was completely helpless.

And then it stopped. Naruto raised his head to see his enemy staring off towards where Shiraku and Sora were fighting. He frowned and then turned his back on Naruto and started to walk away.

"Where the hell are you going?" Naruto yelled.

Slowly the huge man turned back to look. "Shiraku is beating Sora. You should go help her, unless you want her to die."

Naruto glared at him as he struggled to his feet. "You want me to go help kill him? Aren't you two partners?"

Nadare stared down at the boy with reproach. "He was never strong enough to be one of us. He has to be disposed of. That was what I was asked to do, and I am not foolish enough to go against the will of the Akatsuki."

"You don't feel any guilt for what you are about to do to him?"

"He would do the same to me." Nadare turned to go.

Hinata walked over to her boyfriend, who was staring at Nadare's retreating form as if trying to burn a hole in the man's back.

"Naruto?" she asked quietly.

He grunted, indicating he could hear her.

"I don't understand," she said.

"You had better hurry," Nadare called back to them. "Unless you want your sister to be dead."

Naruto grit his teeth. He wanted to go after him. He wanted to beat him into a pulp. But he couldn't risk that what Nadare said was true.

"Come on," he said to Hinata, turning to go back the way they came.

Sora glared at the Shiraku, wincing as she fought to keep the shield up. Between her attempt to seal the woman in mud, and now trying to keep her at bay, her chakra reserves were going to be gone soon. This had to be the most powerful summoning she had ever seen.

She had exactly one shot at getting the man or she was going to die, and if she died…

She took in a deep breath and let it out. If she died it was going to be Hinata and Naruto up against two Akatsuki members all by themselves.

But unless the woman let up somewhat, there was nothing she was could do. Everything she had was going into keeping herself alive. She couldn't afford to turn anything towards the woman and attack.

Just when she was running out of ideas, Shiraku turned to look away and the power of the lightning woman diminished slightly. Peering around her sleeve, Sora could see why.

The basin was filled with Narutos. They grinned and then faded away. Hinata was using some sort of genjutsu to hide them.

Shiraku pulled his hands together in order to release the genjutsu, only to find himself clobbered by a small army of invisible Naruto shadow clones.

It would only take him seconds to destroy all of them, even concealed as they were. But seconds were all that Sora needed.

Crouching under her shield, Sora focused her chakra inwards, and thought back to the memory of a jutsu she'd used once long before. It had been years since she'd used it, but the memory was there, buried in the recesses of her brain.

She latched onto the memory and shaped her chakra into the form of the jutsu. Turning her head away from the lightning woman, she glared at Shiraku.

"Cold Hell no Jutsu," she whispered mentally, and released the jutsu onto Shiraku.

Instantly the air around Shiraku started to fall rapidly. Aided by the already cold temperatures, Shiraku's skin began to chill as the temperature plummeted below what was naturally possible.

It was so cold that the blood in Shiraku's hands started to freeze. He was unable to move his hands in order to make any seals. His skin was rapidly approaching the same color as his tattoos, drying out and becoming scaly. Sora continued to pump as much chakra as she could into the jutsu, driving the temperature lower and lower.

The pain kept moving in deeper. Just as all the nerve endings in one layer of his skin would be frozen, the cold would reach an even deeper layer that would make him want to scream. He tried to make a seal, to move his body to try to get away from the blistering cold, but he couldn't seem to do it.

Finally, he couldn't take it any longer. He fell screaming to his knees, his skin cracking and tearing. Unable to maintain the thin ropes of control he had over the lightning goddess, she lost interest in Sora and fled back up into the sky.

Sora dropped her shield and gasped for air, carefully keeping her eyes on the man lying in a heap on the ground. Lurching to her feet, she summoned the strength to walk over to him.

He turned his head to one side to look up at her. She smirked. "You know that there are doctors in the West using extreme cold to freeze tattoos off of people?"

Standing up on the bank where they had been hiding, Naruto and Hinata's eyes went wide. Even from this distance they could see that Sora's eyes had turned a deep and vibrant purple.

In all of their travels around the West, they had never seen her use her bloodline limit in a fight. She used it casually when it was just the three of them, using it to silence Naruto or pull small pranks, but never in combat.

And now she stood in ready stance, feet firmly planted in the snow, hands out in front of her, and her eyes seemed to almost glow purple. And the man in front of her was on his knees, blood dripping down one side of his mouth.

He struggled to his feet again only to have Sora smash him back down into the snow with a garass kick, hooking her heel into the side of his head. She stood there for a second, pushing his face into the snow.

"Don't fuck around with me, pretty boy," she said, lifting her foot off of his face. He pulled his face out of the snow only to have Sora grab him by his hair and haul him up off of his feet. "You may be some hot-head who likes to prance around, pretending to be some sort of evil genius, and as long as you stay out of my way, I'm willing to let your do just that. But fuck with me or fuck with my family, and I'll kill you."

She slammed him back down into the snow. His skin was white and blistered all over his body and he lay in an awkward heap on the ground. Sora stared at him for a second, then looked up at where Naruto and Hinata were standing on the crest of a small hill a few feet behind her.

Hinata shivered unconsciously. Sora's eyes seemed endlessly deep in their altered state, diving back into a history full of regret. The look stayed there as she sighed and glanced back down at Shiraku, struggling for breath at her feet. It would take a miracle for him to rise again, and the adrenaline was gradually draining out of her system, leaving an emptiness inside her.

"I told you two to go hide," she said, sounding worn down.

Blinking himself out of his trace, Naruto snorted. "Like we would let you fight these guys on your own!"

Normally, this was the point when Sora would start yelling at him, complaining about how reckless and unthinking he was. But today, she just sighed again and shook her head, as if acknowledging something she should have accepted a long time ago. "Where's Nadare?" she asked.

Naruto stuck his hand behind his head. "Well, he left," he said almost sheepishly.

Sora snapped her head back up to look at them. "Left!" she yelled. "What do you mean 'left'?"

"He said it wasn't his job to take Naruto; that he had other things he was supposed to be doing," Hinata said quietly. "And that you killing Shiraku was of use to them, and that you were getting killed."

Three sets of eyes drifted to stare at the broken man at Sora's feet. His skin had taken on a bizarre, dry, brittle quality. Blood pooled at the side of his head through his hair and into the white snow. It was hard for them to imagine that someone would be able to look more pathetic or downtrodden.

He chuckled disparagingly to himself. "So Nadare betrayed me? To think, all this time he was playing me for a fool, pretending to follow my lead." He closed his eyes. "I suppose I must bow to your superiority, Nadare. You had me fooled," he whispered.

And as much as she hated him for trying to take her Naruto away, Hinata couldn't help but feel a sorry for Shiraku, stripped of his power and now nothing more than a joke. She turned her face into Naruto's shoulder and he brought his hand up to lay against her hair.

Sora knelt down and put her hand on Shiraku's throat. "What do you know?" she said.

He chuckled. "Why should I tell you? You've already as good as killed me."

"They betrayed you. Don't you want to betray them back?" she asked, raising one eyebrow.

He chuckled. "Why bother to betray them? It was a truly evil thing to do. For that, I must say I admire them."

Sora gave a frustrated snort and stood up, kicking Shiraku in the ribs.

Naruto looked over at his sister. Her face was drawn and slightly pale. Her eyes had faded back into their normal pale violet as she continued to stare at Shiraku. She slouched slightly, as if it would be too much effort to stand up completely.

"Nee-chan? You okay?" he asked

She looked up at him as if slightly startled, and then gave him a half smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. A bit battered and tired, but none the worse for wear."

"You're completely exhausted!" Shiraku laughed, as he lay prone on the ground with his eyes closed, the last of his life seeping red into the snow. "Using the taifuugan is far more exhausting than performing the jutsus with seals. You're probably down to the very last of your charka reserves."

"Perhaps, but you're certainly not going anywhere. You're partner abandoned you and you'll be dead in a few minutes. We've won."

"You only think you've won. It's too late Ranmyaku," Shiraku breathed. "You have stopped us, but that's not the end of it."

"It's the end of this," she said, waving her hand at the destruction around them. "We're still here and you and your partner are gone. We've won the battle."

He smiled. "No, not really. You were careless. You practically fell into our laps. There are those in the Akatsuki more powerful than me. What will you do when they come?"

"The same thing I did to you. Kick their sorry asses."

"Yes, but now you are drained, and the next battle is closer than you think."

"I thought you were going to prove yourself to the rest of the Akatsuki by killing me and bringing in Naruto. Wouldn't you keep our location to yourself?"

He laughed harshly, spitting blood up on the snow. "I completed the scrolls needed to execute the plan months ago and they've been waiting to get rid of me for almost as long. Nadare has abandoned me. He will tell the others where to find you. But I don't think they're going to need it."

"What do you mean?"

"I stopped you here in order to prevent you getting to the others first. But even if Itachi doesn't know where you are, that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to find you."

Sora jammed one boot into his chest and glared down at him. "What the hell does that mean?"

He laughed softly. "Let's just hope that the dGra Klesha are as powerful as everyone seems to think they are."

"What sort of answer-" Naruto started, but then it hit him. Shock and horror spread over his face as he looked over at Sora, only to find her staring off into the mountains in the east.

"No! Yasu!" she whispered in horror.

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

"All I'm saying is that the Kaze are part of Miki's heritage, and she should have the chance to get to know them." Yasu handed another breakfast dish to her husband, who proceeded to dry it. Miki ran around the kitchen table, singing at the top of her lungs and banging a spoon against the bottom of a pot, Dango barking happily at her heels.

Her parents simply tuned her out.

"And all I'm saying is that we should wait until the new government is firmly established and there is no chance that anyone is going to try and make us into the head family again," Nori said. It was an argument that was starting to wear on both of them. As soon as Yasu had heard about the instatement of Raoul as the Lord of the Wind, she had been on his case to take them all back for a visit. The farm was nice and all, and she didn't regret anything she had given up for her family, but she missed some parts of the West. She wanted to eat the food and wear a saree rather than a kimono. She wanted to show her daughter some of the amazing cities and peoples that she simply wouldn't be able to see in the East. She wanted to see if she was still able to sneak into the private libraries of wealthy citizens to use their books.

"Sora says everything is fine. They've learned their lesson and most people are happy with Raoul as the Lord of the Wind. He has been in power for a year now," she said rather coldly, and with the air of delivering an unopposable argument.

He smiled at her. "Sure you're thinking about Miki and not anxious to go yourself?"

She tried to shrug nonchalantly, and failed miserably. "We haven't been back to the West since we got married. It's been six years."

"Getting a little anxious living here on the farm day after day?" he asked, flicking water at her face.

She glowered at him, which made him laugh. "I'm fine. I was just thinking a vacation might be nice."

He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her back against his chest, rocking them both back and forth. "You and Miki are welcome to go visit the Kaze. But I don't want to run the risk of having anyone think about a coup, so I'm going to wait until I feel things are a little more established than one year can provide."

She sighed. "I don't want to go without you. I can wait a few more years, I suppose."

"You sure? After six years, I would imagine you would be getting bored."

"You're my family; how could I get bored?" And it was true, she wasn't bored. She was simply a little restless.

"Well, I was thinking; perhaps we could make things a little more interesting around here."

"More interesting?" she asked suspiciously.

He pulled her to him tighter and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Miki's almost five, and we're not getting any younger. Didn't we say we wanted more than one?"

She pulled back in shock to look at him over her shoulder. "What?"

"I think it's time to have another baby. The first one came out so well after all." He grinned and jerked his head towards his daughter, who had put the pot on her head and was trying to get the dog to fetch the spoon.

"You want to have another baby?" she asked, still dumfounded.

He squeezed her again. "Just think about it. It's not like I'm suggesting we start trying right this very second. Miki's here after all."

She blushed and slapped his arm indignantly. He laughed again and let her go. He turned and scooped his daughter up off the floor. She giggled and grabbed a hold of his hair. "Hey, Miki-chan. What do you say we get you out of those pajamas and into real clothes?"

Yasu smiled as her husband carried their daughter out of the kitchen and up the stairs. He was so wonderful with her, always playing stilly games and acting like a big kid himself.

She frowned slightly and put her hand up to the neck of her kimono. Reaching inside, she pulled out a chain and held it up to her face. There, threaded onto the gold braid, was the ring that her husband had cut off the hand of the last man she had assassinated. The big emerald glittered in the sun from the window.

Their only job together; the only time that their lives together had inhabited the dark recesses of the underworld. She smiled at the ring. The man who had courted her and won her heart had been an assassin like her who accepted who she was. She treasured that; the fact that he knew who she had been and who she had become, and loved them both. With every year they had together, she loved him more, and the man she loved now was the sort who helped her dry the breakfast dishes and tossed their daughter up in the air. She had a man and a daughter she loved, and all the rest didn't matter. She could skip going back to the West for a few more years.

Even if she really would love to take a crack at some of those libraries again.

She smiled again and slipped the ring back inside her robe. Maybe he was right. Maybe another child was a good idea. Miki would probably love the idea of being a big sister, and by the time the next baby was old enough to travel across the mountains, things would be established politically in the Kaze.

She'd talk about it with him tonight, she decided. She didn't like to rush into things, but this was starting to seem like a better and better-

She stopped as a strip of paper nailed to the cabinet started to turn black. She watched as the color traveled from the top of the strip down to the edge. Her heart started to race in her chest.

Someone had just crossed onto their lands. Someone with immense chakra.

"Nori!" she yelled.


	32. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31**

Hinata's mind was in something vaguely resembling an overload. For years she had been asked to do things that were impossible for her. Day after day, year after year, she had been asked to excel at techniques that she couldn't even complete. One of the things that leaving with Sora had meant to her was learning the difference between unreasonable demands and being pushed. Her father had always come to her holding up an ideal and asking her to become that. Sora held up her potential and asked her to live up to it. She never asked to do things she wasn't ready to do.

At least until now.

"You have to summon a falcon big enough for all three of us to ride on," Sora said solemnly.

Hinata stared at her as though she was out of her mind. "But I've never summoned anything larger than a peregrine!" she cried.

"Well, you are now," Sora said. "I don't have the chakra right now and any other way is going to be too slow. Even at top speed, we're a good four or five days away from Yasu and Nori. We need to get there fast, and that means we have to fly."

"But I…" her voice trailed off, not knowing what to say. She turned to Naruto to look for support, only to find him nodding his head.

"She's right Hina-chan; it's the only way to do it."

She bit her lower lip and looked down at the ground. They didn't understand; both of them were the type to simply decide they were going to do something and do it, without much consent to the reality of the situation. Naruto was far worse that Sora, but she was just as good at digging her heels in.

But the fact of the matter was that while she had more chakra left than Sora, she was at nowhere near the level needed to summon anything big enough for them to ride on. She was going to need a lot more than she had, and there was no way for her to get it. Her stores were depleted; all theirs were…

Her head shot up as she looked at her boyfriend. His chakra reserves were never depleted. Thanks to the Kyuubi, his own chakra restored itself quickly, in addition to having the Kyuubi's chakra when he was completely drained. That meant that he not only had more chakra than them, but that it restored itself faster. If he had a contract and some experience with the falcons, he would probably have enough to summon the falcon (they needed).

Or she might be able to if she had some of his chakra.

She turned to face him. "Naruto-kun, I need you to give me some of your chakra."

Naruto looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

Using someone else's chakra in order to perform jutsu was certainly not a terribly advanced technique. It was slightly more difficult to mold chakra that you were given rather than charka you produced yourself, but in the end chakra was chakra.

Unless you were Naruto.

Sora had never let Naruto feed her chakra, no matter how much sense it made for them as partners, because of the possibility that she would get a dose of Kyuubi's chakra. It was too risky; they didn't know how anyone but Naruto was going to react to having demonic chakra pumped into their system.

Hinata looked over at Sora. She was standing with her arms crossed across her chest staring down at the snow. She obviously didn't want to say yes, but couldn't bring herself to say no.

She looked back at Naruto and their eyes locked. He didn't want to do this at all. He didn't want to put her at risk and he was desperately trying to think of another way. But they both knew that there was no other way for her to build nearly enough chakra by herself to do this.

"I won't do it," he said.

"Naruto-kun-" she started, but he barreled right over her.

"I won't do it!" he yelled. "You know how dangerous this is! I'm not going to risk your life like this! We'll find another way!"

"I risk my life every day! There is no other way to get there in time!" she protested, laying her hand on his shoulder, trying to make him understand.

"Boost me," Sora said from behind her. "I have more experience. Should something go wrong, I have a better chance of being able to do something."

Hinata turned her body partially towards her and shook her head. "Onee-chan, you're completely drained! If Naruto gives the chakra to me, all he has to do is give me a boost. He'd have to provide enough for you to do the entire summoning, and that's bound to get into demonic chakra. With me, he might not need to use the Kyuubi."

"I'm not going to do it!" Naruto yelled. "I'm not going to boost either of your chakra! It's too dangerous!"

Tears threatened to leak out of the corners of Hinata's eyes but she pulled them back. "If you don't, it will take us days to get to Nori and Yasu's house. Flying, it will only take us a couple of hours. That could be the difference between whether they live or not!"

There was complete silence for a minute as the weight of Hinata's words settled over them.

"Do it Naruto," Sora said quietly.

Naruto looked at her in shock and anger. "But Nee-chan!"

Her voice took on a chilly tone. "She's right Naruto; it's the only way. You want to be Hokage? Then learn how to make tough choices. Boost Hinata's chakra!"

Naruto glared at her. "When I'm Hokage, I won't let anything like this happen! I'll keep the whole village safe without risking others!"

Sora cut him off with a slap across the face, then grabbed him by his hair and forced him to look at her. Her voice was calm and callous as she spoke. "Yes you will! Because that is the nature of the world. We have to take risks, and not just with our own lives, but with those we love. We go into battle with them, we risk hurting them, we even risk killing them because there is a greater good. And sometimes that greater good is all that we have. Trust me kid, you haven't even begun to see what this world is capable of. If you think that a couple years of traveling, a whole lot of reading and one restored clan has taught you what you need to know to lead, then you need to grow up." She released him and shoved him towards Hinata while they both stared at her, astonished.

"Grow up, Naruto. Make the tough decision. Boost Hinata's chakra."

He stared at her in shock. She hadn't spoken to him in that tone of voice since he had tried to teach himself the Fire Wall no Jutsu. Looking back, he could tell why she had been angry at him. He had been acting like an idiot and putting all three of them in danger. Was he acting like an idiot now? In two and a half years, would he look back on this and wonder why he had hesitated?

He felt Hinata's hand on his arm. He looked at her, confused and obviously torn. She seemed to radiate comfort and sadness, as if she understood what he was going through. She reached up with her free hand to cup one of his cheeks.

"Please," she whispered, a single tear running down the side of her face.

He clenched all the muscles in his face and looked down at the ground. They were standing over a spot of red, where someone's blood had dyed the snow. His view was blocked by Hinata's shoulder as she stepped towards him, put her arms around him, and squeezed him tightly. Burying his face in her hair, he wrapped his arms around her and allowed himself to breathe in her scent.

She rubbed her hands up and down his back. "Please," she repeated.

He held her tighter and then nodded into her hair. She squeezed him back and then pulled away, pushing a few strands of blond hair out of his face. Standing up on her tiptoes, she kissed his cheek. "Ready?" she asked.

He nodded again as she turned herself in his arms and pressed her back against his. Contact wasn't necessary for them to use each other's chakra, but considering the risks, they were taking as few chances as possible.

And the last thing Naruto wanted was to let Hinata go.

Reaching into the pouch on her leg, Hinata pulled out a kunai and sliced her thumb. Returning the weapon to its pouch, she pulled her thumb across her opposite palm, leaving a bright read streak.

Twisting to look back and up at her boyfriend, she nodded. He moved his arms from around her waist and pulled up the sleeves of her jacket so that he could put his hands on the skin of her arms.

He closed his eyes and tried to think of the color blue. That was all he was going to give her; pure blue chakra, not the red, Kyuubi-tainted stuff.

He felt her arms move as she brought her hands together and started to seal. He counted them off, one, two, three, four and then right before she spoke the name, he pushed his remaining chakra into her.

It felt like she was getting hit with a two-ton brick. His chakra slammed into her, stronger than anything she could have imagined. His normal chakra didn't feel like hers; even it was supercharged. She struggled to stay on her feet as the chakra pressed her into the ground. Her throat was suddenly dry and her voice gone; she was unable to get out the words she needed to complete the jutsu. The chakra just kept coming, past her normal reserves to levels she had never experienced before.

And then she saw it. In the back of her mind, roaring towards her, was something immense and red. A mouth opened, displaying sharp teeth as claws lashed through the air. It was coming to devour her and then use what little strength she had in her to make itself stronger. It wanted OUT, and it wanted her strength to help it.

Naruto grit his teeth and gripped Hinata's wrists harder. The Kyuubi's chakra had never come up this fast before. Normally he had some sort of warning, a pause between when he ran out of chakra before the demon started to loan him his, but this time it had just come barreling thorough him before he was even aware that he was at the end of his chakra. It was as if it had a mind of its own and was determined to get to Hinata.

With a gasp, he pulled back, letting go of her arms. Suddenly, the fox was gone, and Hinata was left only with the buzzing of chakra leaving her, feeling like there was an electric current running through her body. Quickly, she slammed her palm down onto the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" she yelled.

Lines shot out from around her hand in a huge circle, and she felt herself rise in the air and then start to fall. Naruto caught her, and they watched as the huge falcon arrived in a plume of white smoke. Suddenly Hinata felt like she had no energy left and collapsed against Naruto's shoulder.

"Hina-chan? HINA-CHAN!" he yelled shaking her slightly, He fell to his knees to cradle her in his lap. She moaned slightly and shifted in his arms. Looking down, he could see finger-shaped bruise marks on her forearms from where he had grabbed her. Where his palm had rested on each arm there were sets of jagged lines burned into her skin forming a rough semi-circle.

He cringed and held her closer. What if they scarred?

The falcon dug its feet into the snow and let out a squawk. It was huge, its flapping wings stretching wider than most of the houses in Konoha. Its beak snapped impatiently as it lifted one wing to peer underneath it at Naruto and Hinata.

"I thought we had made it clear that we couldn't be summoned on flat ground!" the falcon, who from the pitch of her voice was female, snapped rather crossly. "Your lucky that I can get a good foothold in this snow! I'm not some common pigeon whose feet are flat!"

"Hey, we just busted our asses to get you here!" Naruto yelled back, still holding Hinata against his chest.

The falcon snapped her beak again, then brought her head close to stare Naruto down. "Don't forget, fledgling, that if you summoned us here, you are obviously asking for a favor."

"Why you-" Naruto started, only to be cut off by Sora.

"Hey, cut the kid some slack! Like he said, we just busted our asses to get you here," she said, walking over to stand next to her brother.

The falcon's eyes narrowed. "Oh, it's you." She said. "What do you want?"

Sora crossed her arms across her chest. "What the hell does that mean?"

The falcon snorted, sending out a gust of wind that pushed all their hair back. "You always summon us, are rude and then ask for us to do crazy things."

"What the hell are you talking about!" Sora asked indignantly.

The falcon snorted again and turned her attention to Naruto and Hinata. "The last time I saw her, she wanted me to fly her out of a building surrounded by an army of people with arrows! And not just people with little bows and arrows, oh no. People with unspeakable machines that launched the largest arrows I have ever seen! I thought I was going to be killed!"

"Oh, pardon me for thinking that a few measly arrows wouldn't be difficult for a great big falcon to deal with. You're only supposed to be the fastest birds in the world."

Her eyes narrowed again. "Why you little-"

"Please!" Hinata managed weakly. "Please, we need your help!" She turned in Naruto's arms and opened her eyes to look at the bird.

The falcon pushed her head in closer to Hinata's face. Her eyes widened. "Are you the one who summoned me?" she asked.

Hinata nodded weakly.

Suddenly the falcon reminded Naruto more of a hen than a bird of prey. "Oh you must be Hinata. Only one little girl on our summoning scrolls with eyes like that. For goodness sakes, you should hear the little ones talking about the rookie. They just go on and on about what a sweet little thing you are and how nice you are to them even when they're little and…oh for goodness sakes!" She laughed, a slightly horrifying sound. "If you've managed to summon me, then you must be doing better than before. You should be proud of yourself for making such a big leap in such a small time!"

"Please," Hinata said weakly. "We don't have time!"

"Huh?" the falcon said, peering at her. "Are you alright dear? You sound rather weak."

"She's right!" Naruto said quickly. "We have friends who are in trouble, and we need to get to them fast!"

The falcon shot an accusatory look at Naruto. "Did she completely drain herself to get me here?"

"I'm fine," Hinata said, although her tone left a great deal of room for doubt. "I'm just tired. Please, we need to get to our friends. There are some very powerful men after them and if we don't get there…" her voice trailed off.

"Well, why didn't you start with that?" the falcon asked, lowering her body close to the ground.

"All right!" Naruto yelled as he stood up, still holding Hinata in his arms. Balancing himself carefully, he climbed up onto the back of the bird, settling himself and Hinata between the falcon's shoulder blades.

"What direction are we heading?" the falcon asked.

"East-northeast," Sora said, climbing on. "Back towards my house and then continuing on towards Yasu's."

"Yasu? That partner of yours? She's the friend that needs help?"

"Her, her husband, and their daughter," Sora said, sitting herself down next to Naruto and putting her hand on Hinata's forehead. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"All right; just weak and dizzy. And my arms hurt," she said weakly.

Sora turned Hinata's arms over to look at where they had been burnt. She looked up and her eyes locked with Naruto's. A flash of guilt passed between them; they were the ones who had allowed this to happen to her.

The falcon bent her legs and jumped, flapping her wings madly in the air as she gained altitude.

"I don't have enough chakra left to really do any of my healing jutsus," Sora said quietly.

Naruto swallowed. Sora was a decent healer; you didn't spend three years apprenticed to Tsunade without learning how to patch people up. But while Sora had made sure Naruto learned basic field medicine, he had resisted spending time learning more than that. "I just know the really basic ones," he said.

"Well, considering that we don't know exactly what's going on with her chakra and the demon chakra, we probably shouldn't do anything to big anyway. Keep her generally warm and then alternate between warm and cool on her arms," she said standing up. "I'm going to go talk to the big bird."

Naruto nodded and put a light shield up to keep out some of the wind that was whipping around them. Laying his hands back over the marks he had put on her, he started to warm her arms to get the blood flowing again.

"Hang in there, Hina-chan. We still have a long way to go."

**:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::**

It had never escaped Nori and Yasu's mind that someday the aftershocks of their lives would hit them. They had precautions and plans set up, ready just in case the son of someone they had killed or a man who wanted them to work as assassins should show up. Yasu put a sleeping jutsu on Miki and hid her away in a sealed room where she would be safe away from the battle. Then she and Nori went out onto the front porch.

It had taken them less than a minute to raise the first level of their defense. It had taken them less than a minute to knock out their daughter and hide her away. It had taken less than a minute for them to get out onto the front porch and scan the horizon for their enemies.

But every minute that went by was a valuable minute lost and when they made it outside they could already see two dark forms heading towards them.

"They must have just walked right through the jutsu," Yasu said in awe. Their first line of defense against enemies was a complex genjutsu that involved visual and physical illusion and a forced feeling of indifference. It was designed to simply make people decide that they didn't really want to go to Yasu and Nori's, just in case there was a false alarm. They wouldn't be able to see the farmhouse, their body would feel tired and heavy, and a feeling of malaise would overwhelm them.

It was designed so that someone inexperienced would feel the effects without really knowing what was going on. They would be able to chalk it up to a strange thing that happened and not necessarily know that Yasu and Nori's house was being so well protected. However, it was strong enough that most ninja would not be able to make it through. The further in you got, the harder it was to continue.

They had tested it once before. Nori had not been able to get through. Sora had not been able to get through until she activated her bloodline limit and did some serious damage to the places in the fields where the power was anchored. But whoever it was advancing towards them had just waltzed through and kept coming towards the house.

"We'll have to go to the next level. You ready?" Nori asked, looking over his shoulder at Yasu.

She stood at the top of the porch steps and nodded. "I'm raising the next line of defense," she said, bringing her hands up to her face. Closing her eyes, she mentally reached out and caught the threads of chakra she had put into place over the years. Pulling them towards herself, she grabbed them in closed fists and stared out over the plane.

"Air Tapestry no Jutsu," she yelled and pumped chakra down the threads. The chakra shot down the lines, filling the woven pattern that encircled the house. It rose out of the ground surrounding the house in a broad circle and shot up into the sky. Tiny streams of air traveling at hundreds of miles per hour wove in and out of themselves, battling against the ground as they tried to make a sphere around the house.

"That should hold them off for a bit," Yasu said as she lowered her hands, a distinctive chill in her tone.

"How are you on chakra?" Nori asked her, looking up in concern. She was the one who powered most of their defenses. If it came to the point where they had to run for it, it would be him who protected them, but for right now she was the one who was being drained.

"I'm fine," she said icily, a bit of the old ice princess sneaking back into her voice. "You worry about what happens if they get through this Air Tapestry. We have one more defense after this one; if this goes down then we'll have to run."

"Well, I suppose I'll have to decide whether we're going to try to bring the china with us or not," he remarked lightly, earning him a deadly glare from his wife. His face hardened and he looked at her with somber eyes. "Why don't you and Miki go ahead and run. If I stay here I should be able to hold them off long enough for you to get to Sora's house. That's far better defended than here."

"No. We agreed a long time ago. We both run or neither of us run," she said. "Besides, we don't know whether or not they're going to get through the Air Tapestry yet. It could very well be that the first jutsu malfunctioned and this will hold them back just fine. Don't jump to the worst possible scenario."

"Weren't you the one who just told me to worry about what was going to happen if they should make it through?" he asked, his voice slightly patronizing.

"Shut up."

He was about to reply when a giant sword came crashing through the wall of air, the tip of the sword puncturing the front. It shook against the wind, but held firm. It pulsed with chakra, sending ripples out through the air, sending threads crashing together.

Yasu again grabbed the ends of the chakra threads and tried to repair the damage to her jutsu. Pumping more chakra into the technique, she tried to hold the breaking lines together. She struggled for a few minutes against the chakra from the sword, but wasn't able to force it out.

She felt Nori's lips on her temple. "Raise the third shield. I'm going to grab Miki; we're running," he whispered and headed back into the house.

Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the lines of her last jutsu with one hand while trying to keep the Air Tapestry going. Ready to make the switch, Yasu started to drain the reserves of chakra she had tied to the land. She had added a little more in every day, making them larger and larger as the years went by, ready for when the enemy they could not defeat would arrive on their doorstep. Once she got it started, it would keep going on its own, allowing them the chance to escape.

The first barrier had been designed to divert people. The second barrier had been designed to keep them out. This one was designed to kill them.

Yasu started to seal. Up from the ground came a wall of dirt, forming a dome over the house and sealing out everything, casting the house into darkness. Still sealing, she walked up to the wall and stopped to reach up and draw a series of curved lines on its surface. She pulled her hands away to make a few more seals and then slammed it back into the symbol. "Poisoned Earth no Jutsu!" she yelled.

The wall shuttered. Yasu could feel the chakra bubbles popping, releasing hundreds of poisonous spores out into the air. Sora had brought the couple a few of the plants that produced them back with her from one of her trips back west. Yasu had used chakra to keep them alive while buried deep under the ground. The spores were one of the deadliest poisons known to man. Anyone standing within fifty feet of the wall would die.

Yasu waited a moment to give the spores a chance to ride the air towards her enemy. Then she used another jutsu to set the entire dome on fire. Now the men would not be able to get through before the poison got a chance to work. And they had their chance to escape.

Yasu breathed in sharply as the wall banged from a chakra assault. The fire and poison didn't seem to be affecting them. They just kept coming. They had to get out of there quickly. She ran back to the front porch.

Nori came down the stairs, carrying Miki wrapped up in a blanket. Her face just barely showed in the drape of the blanket, her nose peeping out above her closed eyes. Dango trotted along next to Nori on his short little legs.

Yasu took Miki from Nori, and he helped her quickly tie the child to her with another sash. Nori was far stronger in taijutsu than she was; he needed complete freedom of movement.

"How long until the shield goes down?" he asked.

"At the rate they're tearing it down, about two minutes," she replied, locking eyes with her husband.

"Then we had better get going," he said. In a flash the two of them were down in basement, heading towards a small door tucked back in a niche in the dirt wall. They opened it up to reveal a tunnel in the earth that would lead them out past the boundaries of their own jutsu. Hopefully the few minutes it took for their enemies to figure out what had happened would be enough time for them to get away. They just needed to get to Sora's house and then they would be under the protection of Nanashi and the Fourth's wards, which were the strongest any of them had ever seen.

A quick jutsu provided a light in the palm of Nori's hand. They raced down the passage, Dango trying furiously to keep up with them. They had made it about a third of the way when the dog froze in its tracks and whimpered.

"Come on," Yasu said encouragingly over her shoulder. It had just occurred to her that there might be a reason the dog had stopped when she and Nori hit the wall. There was a barrier in the middle of their passage, blocking their exit.

"Damn it!" Nori cursed under his breath, banding on the clear wall. How the hell had this gotten here?

From just outside the circle of light came a figure wrapped in a dark cloak emblazoned with red clouds. A high collar reached just below the brim of his wide straw hat, almost completely masking his face. But Nori could just make out two red eyes.

"Yasu, go back," he said in Western, gluing his eyes to the man's feet. He could only hope the other man did not speak the language.

"What?" she asked shocked. "I'm not leaving you!" Genjutsu was a far better weapon in these close quarters and she probably would be a more effective fighter than him.

If she hadn't been carrying her daughter.

"Get Miki out of here. I'll keep this man at bay. You'll have to sneak past the other man upstairs. Just don't stop until you get to Sora's."

"Both of us run or neither of us run!" she yelled.

Nori's eyes stayed on the man's feet. He appeared to be doing nothing, but Nori didn't believe for a second that he was just standing there watching them. There was no doubt in his mind who this man was, and he didn't want his wife or daughter anywhere near him. They had a far better chance against his partner upstairs.

"I'll be right behind you," he said. "Go upstairs, get past the other guy and go."

Yasu hesitated. They had agreed years ago, both or neither of them would run from a fight. She didn't know how she would live if he was killed. But they had also both agreed that Miki always had to come first. And that meant getting her out.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too," he said. "Go!" And she turned and ran back down the passage.

He dared to move his eyes just up to the man's waist. "Uchiha Itachi, I presume." Nori started working on getting down the barrier. There was very little he could do through it, and he needed to get rid of this man and get back to his family.

"Yes," the man said. His voice was low and oddly neutral. He projected a strange calm , like a perfectly peaceful ocean with deeply moving currents underneath. Deadly, horribly so, but almost as if he had all of the good taken out of him, leaving a vacuum, rather than having evil grow up inside him.

"You left quite an impression on a friend of mine. But he is not here."

Silence.

Nori took another breath and started to pull chakra into his hands. "We don't even know where he is. Sora might have taken him anywhere by now, maybe even back to Konoha."

"We know where he is. We are here to wait for him," Itachi said, simply standing there staring straight ahead.

Nori grinned. "You'll have to pardon me if I don't welcome you properly," he said, and the shield fell. Nori exploded towards the man in a masterful set of strikes.

Naruto had said that in his one encounter with Itachi, the man had not used taijutsu. From what Sora had gleaned from Tsunade before she left, the limited amount of information they had collected on Itachi since the Uchiha massacre indicated that the man had switched almost completely over to using genjutsu. It would thereby seem logical that his taijutsu had fallen, leaving him open to a physical attack.

What had failed to get to Konoha was that Itachi was probably the best evader Nori had every fought. He was completely unable to land a strike. Itachi just seemed to disappear from every place Nori was striking. He never even tried to parry the attacks; the man simply wasn't there.

He heard a very soft mumbling behind him and whipped around to see Itachi standing with his hands together but his sleeves hiding them.

Suddenly, the tunnel walls began to melt. They came down and wrapped around him. Nori tried to release the illusion, but realized too late that it wasn't one; Itachi was actually bending the walls of the tunnel.

He tried everything he could think of to get himself free; struggling physically against his bonds while he lashed out with all of the chakra he had left. But it was too late; he was already completely bound.

The mud slid up around his face, turning it towards his enemy. He tried to shut his eyes, but tendrils of mud came down and pulled them open.

He stared into Itachi's eyes.

The three black marks (three-bladed circles - the Mangekyou Sharingan which performs Tsukuyomi and Amatarasu is a black circle with 3 blades spiraling out of it) began to turn.

Nori's world went red.

**Original Author's Note**: Whew! I haven't updated this fast in a while, but I'm starting to feel like I'm back in the swing of this story. I got kinda lost for a while, but now I feel I'm back on track, even though Itachi is an extremely difficult character to write. In any case I hope you enjoyed it. There are about four to five chapters left depending on how I divide it up.


	33. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32**

Yasu burst out through the front door to be greeted by the sight of a large, scaly sword being stuck through her lovely clay wall and sucking the chakra out of it. She felt the chakra being pulled out of the defense and mentally calculated how long she had until it collapsed. Yasu cursed under her breath; she had less than a minute.

She ran around to the back of the house and stood there next to the wall, quickly starting a jutsu that would keep her and Miki from being hit by the poison outside. Once the shield went down, the man outside would hopefully head into the house and she would be able to run off. Once she had Miki safely stowed somewhere, she would be able to come back and get Nori.

The wall began to ripple and disintegrate in front of her. Mud fell down around her feet in large chunks. She reached in with chakra-coated hands and pulled more mud out from in front of her, creating a large enough hole for her to slip through. She reached down to hike her skirt up over her knees so that she could step through the exit.

She had gotten one leg through when a voice from behind stopped her.

"Don't tell me you're running," it scoffed.

She half turned to look back over her shoulder. The man's dark cape swirled around him where he stood, the sword resting on his shoulder. He sneered at her and she hardened her features. You could credit the sun and the wind for the bizarre texture of his skin, but not for the gray color tinged with green. She wondered briefly if anyone knew how he had gotten that way; how his physical features had morphed to match the inspiration behind his sword. Surely he couldn't have been born this way, but she couldn't think of how else the procedure would be done.

She started to bring her hands up to form seals when a huge blast of water came barreling through the hole she had made in the wall, catching her off guard and sending her flying through the air towards the house. She twisted in the air in order to protect Miki and ended up barreling face first into the side of her house with a disgusting splat.

She let herself sink to the ground, pulling her hands inside the sleeves of her kimono. She lay her cheek against the side of her house and looked through partially opened, hazy eyes at her enemy. He was standing above her, smirking at her crumpled form.

She moaned as if in terrible pain and started sealing inside her sleeves. There was a reason that most of the chakra for the house defenses had been put in the ground. She was still in decent fighting condition and had plenty of fight left in her.

Kisame raised his sword above his head, ready to bring the weapon crashing down on top of her. She rushed to finish her seals before springing away. "Desert Hurricane no Jutsu!" she yelled over the sound of the sword creating a huge hole in the side of her house.

Kisame dropped his sword and brought his hands up to hold his head. Yasu took the opportunity to turn and run. Dessert Hurricane was a powerful technique, and while it wouldn't hold him once she had gotten too far out of range to keep feeding additional chakra into it, that combined with the time it would take him to recover from its effects should give her a fairly effective escape time. Right now Kisame felt like he was being tossed around like a rag doll through scorching hot desert air. Once the jutsu was broken, it would still take him a while to feel like he could breath again and find the balance in his inner ear. With any luck, by that time she'd be long gone.

She turned the corner around the house and almost ran into Kisame.

One side of his mouth twisted up in a grin. "I thought you were some sort of legend in the east. I was looking forward to fighting you, but all you seem to do is run."

Yasu didn't understand. She could still feel her chakra draining away into a jutsu that he had escaped from. He was gone, but apparently the jutsu was continuing to work. Then she felt the man inside her jutsu simply slip away, like water running through her fingers. And that she realized was exactly what had happened. The man she had caught in her jutsu had been a water clone. The most exceptionally crafted water clone she had ever seen.

"You came here just to test your skills against me? I'm flattered," she said coldly, making it clear that she wasn't.

His grin widened ever so slightly. "Yeah, right. We're here to wait for the fox kid."

"Well, you'll be waiting a long time. Sora's gone back to the Kaze in the West and is trying to convince them to allow her and the kids to stay. If they return to Konoha, it will be directly, not by coming here first."

He let out a bark of a laugh. "You think telling me that is going to keep me from killing you? You expect me to believe that at all?"

She bit the inside of her cheek in order to help her keep her face straight. No, she hadn't hoped to avoid fighting. But she had hoped that the lie would put him off balance a little, plus keep her from having to kill him. If he didn't think Naruto was coming here, she might be able to get away with just driving him back, forcing a retreat and making going to the west a more appealing notion. But he hadn't even believed her.

He shifted his weight back out of his fighting stance. It was an insult to her abilities, saying that he could get back into stance and defend before she could strike. "By now, those three will have fought Nadare and Shiraku. The girl will be dead, and the boy and his sister will be exhausted. But they won't be able to stop and rest because they know that you two are in danger. It will take them at least two days to get here running full speed and even then, he and your old partner will be as good as useless. You, your husband, and your daughter will all be dead. We'll get the boy and leave."

A cold chill went down Yasu's spine. They couldn't be dead, could they? Surely Sora would be able to keep them alive. Surely she would slip past them, or catch them off guard, or just plain beat them.

But watching Kisame's face sink lower under the high collar of his coat, fear seeped into her bones. Sora was good, but she wasn't in the condition that she had been six years ago when they had retired. She had focused on teaching and let her own training fall. Yasu knew if you didn't use what you had, you lost it, and she didn't know just how much Sora had lost.

And standing in back of her house, staring at one of the best swordfighters to ever walk the earth with one of the greatest swords ever forged and with her daughter strapped to her back, she wondered just how much she had lost herself.

Suddenly, Kisame paused, as if distracted by something. It gave Yasu just enough time to scramble away and collect herself out of Kisame's striking range.

She came to her feet and stared hard at him. Then she heard it too, a low pulsing sound that resounded through the air. She swallowed and closed her eyes. She was one of the few people who knew that sound.

Turning towards the noise, she opened her eyes and looked up. There, about fifty feet above them in the air was a huge falcon, batting the air with its wings and circling above them. And falling from the falcon towards them at an extremely rapid rate was a very hyped up blond boy with a swirling mass of chakra in his hand.

"Water Clone no Jutsu!" Kisame yelled quickly, surrounding himself with a protective circle of realistic copies.

"Shadow Clone no Jutsu!" Naruto countered, creating six replicas of himself. The Rasengan rolled off his hand and into the hand of another clone, circling as it passed between them, moving from Naruto to Naruto.

"Water Prison no Jutsu!" Kisame said as the clones came closer. He captured six of them within bubbles of water, but the last one twisted away at just the right moment to avoid being captured. Cupping the Rasengan in one palm, he tried to push it into Kisame's head, but was thrown off by a sudden shift in weight and a hand wrapping around his ankle. He managed to tag Kisame's shoulder, the chakra ripping through his coat to the skin and muscle below.

Naruto flew backwards through the air as Kisame threw him by his foot. He twisted in midair to land on his feet. Behind him landed Sora and Hinata, both looking calm and none the worse for wear. Hinata waved at the falcon and yelled a thank you. Sora just grinned.

"Yeah, you got him!" she exclaimed.

"Eh, just tagged his shoulder," he said grumpily.

"Yeah, but it's his sword arm. He's not going to be able to wield that thing nearly as well with those muscles messed up."

Kisame looked at the three of them with rather thinly-veiled shock.

Sora chuckled. "Oh, I'm sorry; are you wondering what happened to the little annoyances you sent our way?" Sora asked sarcastically.

Naruto snorted. "We took care of them pretty easily. Then summoned up a falcon and hitched a ride here. Figured we'd take care of you while we were on a roll."

Kisame smirked. "So you're here, but you're completely drained."

"Hinata and I are contracted with the falcons so we can borrow their chakra, and Naruto's a chakra freak. We're not completely charged, but we're pretty good."

"Certainly good enough to take care of an idiot like you," Naruto added.

"Here," Hinata said, brushing Yasu's shoulder. "I'll take Miki."

Sora was bluffing, Yasu realized. Unless you were dealing with the boss, it took a lot of practice to effectively draw chakra out of a bonded animal. Sora had done it before, so she probably was in fairly good condition, but Hinata was clearly not in top fighting form. So, they wanted Yasu to fight while she took Miki.

The last thing that Yasu wanted was to be separated from her child, but she could see that the group was probably better off if she fought. She repressed the urge to yell that no one was going to take her daughter from her and untied the knot holding Miki to her. Carefully positioning the little girl on Hinata's back, she helped her tie the cloth while Sora exchanged verbal barbs with Kisame.

"So I have to ask, where did you find Shiraku? I've never met anyone in my life who was such an idiotic nutcase."

Kisame snorted. "Fishing for details about why we brought him in? Don't waste your energy." He grinned. "You don't have that much left."

Naruto grinned back. "We'll see about that," he remarked, shifting his feet into a better fighting position.

There was a loud booming sound from behind the house. As they turned to look they could see large chunks of dirt soaring over the rooftop and into the sky. The water from the rice patties flew up into the air, covering them all in a light spray.

They coughed and tried to peer through the mess to find the source of the noise. Yasu's throat closed up as she looked off toward the back of the house. That was the direction of the escape tunnel.

Through the mist came a cloaked figure, walking slowly, deliberately towards them. Itachi still wore his wide straw hat, obscuring his face, but there was something about his walk, calm, confident, that left no room for doubt that there was nothing going on that worried him. He wasn't walking away as if there was still an enemy he had to worry about; he was walking away from a defeated foe.

"Nori," Yasu breathed. Turning away from Kisame, she started to run towards the back of the house. She ran right past Itachi, who made no move to stop her, letting her slip by him while his eyes continued to stare straight ahead.

Behind her house was a hole where Itachi had blasted through the ground to climb out of the tunnel. Running over she stood on the edge of the tear in the ground, looking down into the hole with trepidation. There was her husband, laying slightly crumpled on the floor of the tunnel, the mud having partially retreated from his body.

"Nori!" Yasu screamed, jumping into the tunnel. She fell to her knees in the mud and reached out with one trembling hand to hold his cheek, turning his face towards her.

He took a shallow breath. "Yasu, you're alive…" he whispered as she pulled his head into her lap.

"Of course I'm alive, you idiot," she said, bringing her hands up to start the seals for a healing jutsu. But Nori reached up and loosely grabbed one of her wrists. She looked down at him, startled.

"Miki…where is she?" He wound his hand tighter around her wrist.

"She's fine; Hinata has her. Nori, sweetheart, I need to-"

"I thought you were dead," he whispered, tears welling up in his eyes. "I watched you die…so many times. I kept trying to save you, I kept trying to get them off of you, but I couldn't…"

One of her tears fell on his cheek. "It was an illusion. I'm right here, I'm fine," she said, sliding her fingers into his hair and along the side of his face. He smiled up at her weakly, trying to bring his hand up to touch her face. She caught it and pressed it to her cheek.

"They're gone?"

It occurred to Yasu that her husband wasn't quite in his right mind anymore; that the line between what was real and what was not had become hopelessly blurred by Itachi's illusions. He had apparently watched her and Miki being killed, unable to do anything. She bit her lip and nodded. "They're gone, and they're never coming back."

He smiled at that and rubbed the tips of his fingers over her cheek. "Take care of Miki; keep her safe…" he said.

Yasu's eyes widened as she realized what he was saying. "No. No, Nori, do not give up." She pushed her hands together again, starting the healing jutsu, but once again his hand stopped her.

"Don't. I'm going. I used all of my strength trying to save you and I didn't think I'd been able to. But you're here, you're safe; everything is all right. I can go now."

"No you can't! You need to stay right here with me! Don't you dare-"

"I love you, Yasu," he said, his voice stronger.

"Nori, I-" For a second she thought he was starting to come out of it. That the worst was over and that he was going to stay with her. But then his hand became dead weight under hers. His eyes shut and his head fell to one side to rest against one of her thighs.

"Nori?" she whispered, lowering his hand, so that she could hold his face in both of hers. "Nori?" she asked again louder, panic becoming more prominent in her voice. Her shoulders began to shake as she stroked his face, her tears running down her face. Finally, she took in one deep staggered breath and screamed his name to the sky.

Around the front of the house, Naruto, Hinata and Sora watched as Itachi crossed the yard to stand a few feet away from Kisame. He eyed them with a look that wasn't quite distain and wasn't quite boredom, but clearly not antagonistic.

"You're sooner than expected," he stated with almost no inflection in his voice at all. It was simply a statement, not an expression of surprise or fear.

"Apparently Nadare and Shiraku weren't up to the job. The Hyuuga is still with them," Kisame sneered. Hinata adjusted Miki on her back and shifted her weight, but did not look away.

Yasu came back around the side of the house, half carrying, half dragging the limp form of her husband. Her eyes remained trained on Itachi, glaring steadfast at his center. She limped under the added weight, breathing hard. She stopped on a patch of grass next to the house and bent down to lay her husband on the ground. The hem of her kimono was torn and muddied, the one sleeve almost completely ripped off. Her white hair had fallen partially down and hung in her red-rimmed eyes. She took a deep breath and planted her feet, readying herself for battle.

Sora, Naruto, and Hinata rushed to Yasu and Nori's side. Hinata knelt next to Nori, Miki still tied to her back, and engaged her bloodline limit.

"Is he…" Naruto's voice trailed off.

Hinata looked up at him, white eyes brimming with tears. "His chakra's completely stopped flowing. He's dead."

Naruto howled with rage, the stripes on his cheeks widening and becoming more jagged, the pupils in his eyes narrowing. He drew his hands up to start sealing when Sora's hand on his chest stopped him.

She jerked her head towards Yasu. "She gets to do it," she whispered.

Naruto took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Yasu continued to stand next to her husband and seethe.

Itachi drew his hand up into the sleeve of his coat, hiding it from view as he dipped his chin down below the collar of his coat. He twisted the fingers of his hand into a strange sign, unlike any of the half seals that Naruto and Hinata used. He locked his eyes on Yasu, who was starting to form seals with her hands. He gathered his chakra and whispered under his breath, "Mind Cloud: Depression."

Of all the genjutsu that had been invented in the past century, few were as illusive as the Mind Clouds. The chakra of the user entered the brain of the enemy and messed with the chemical balances, resulting in massive swings of emotion. Originally it had been used to create mania in fighters, making them believe that they were literally invincible, allowing them to go into battle with reckless abandon. It hadn't taken long for them to flip the effects and create a Mind Cloud that triggered a deep dark depression in the mind, sending the victim into despair.

Unless they were thwarted on the first try it was nearly impossible for the person to know that they were being influenced by genjutsu. Unless the someone knew exactly what to look for they were virtually impossible to identify from the outside. And unless broken, they would stay in someone's system from months, eating away at their psyche.

Yasu almost managed to repel it. Itachi watched her face as she fought off the attack, and gave a little extra boost to the chakra. She was already heading partially into despair from the death of her husband. It wouldn't take much more to push her over the edge.

"Yasu?" Sora questioned, daring to send a glance at her partner over her shoulder.

Her face twisted as the genjutsu took over. Then she screamed and fell to her knees, holding her head and sobbing uncontrollably.

"Yasu!" Sora cried and turned towards her partner.

"Sora? Sora, he's gone!" She wailed, grabbing onto the edge of her black coat. Sora's eyes widened. She had never seen Yasu like this. "Sora, what am I going to do without him!" She let out a loud wail and let go, allowing herself to fall down into the mud.

"Yasu! Pull yourself together!" Sora cried. What the hell was wrong with her? The woman that Sora knew was likely to rage against the men who killed those she loved, not break down and wonder how she was going to cope. Not while they were standing right in front of her.

"So this is the dGra Klesha," Kisame snorted. "Some challenge you turned out to be. Pathetic!" he announced, swinging the sword off of his shoulder and resting the tip on the ground. "Looks like we're not going to have to worry about the fact that all of you showed up; they're as good as useless anyway."

"Why you…" Naruto started.

"Naruto." Sora cut off before switching into the Western, hoping that Itachi and Kisame didn't speak the language. "I want you to back off like you and Hinata are going to leave, then split and go in opposite directions; Naruto head northwest, and Hinata head southeast. They should follow you. I'll try to lure one of them off due north and then we can circle back and fight them together. Hinata, you worry about getting Miki to safety and then come back. Argue with me like you don't want to go," she finished quickly.

"But Nee-chan, I won't leave you here!" Naruto yelled in Eastern. "I wanna take these-"

"No time to argue; go!" she yelled and the three of them started to move.

Sora charged directly in towards Itachi and Kisame, hands sealing to activate the Chakra Seal no Jutsu. Her hands glowed purple as she dodged Kisame to head back towards Itachi, ducking and moving in. She attempted to tag him with one hand, but he easily evaded it. She back flipped away from him and landed in a crouch, sending one leg out to sweep underneath his feet. He jumped and again avoided being caught as she tried to hit him from below.

Naruto and Hinata backed up and watched as Kisame picked up his sword to advance towards them. They waited until they had backed up about 50 feet before splitting, Hinata heading away from the fighting and Naruto heading back towards Sora at an angle.

He had traveled about a hundred feet when he realized no one was following him. He turned to see Kisame standing in the exact same spot he had been when they split, looking first at Naruto and then at Hinata. He watched her retreating back and then made three short seals and pointed his finger at her and said something Naruto couldn't hear.

Hinata froze in her tracks. And then slowly turned around.

He watched as Kisame turned away from him. Naruto found himself looking at Hinata standing there with Miki in her arms. Her eyes were filled with fear, but held determination as she watched Kisame advance towards her. He looked at Nori lying dead on the ground, eyes vacant while Yasu clung to his chest and sobbed. Then he looked at Sora, who was facing Itachi, eyes staring at the center of his body.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. One simple through went through his head; no.

Ten breaths. Then focus on the goal.

He breathed in deeply and started to gather chakra in his core, pulling it around the spiral in his stomach and into a tight ball. With every breath he took, he drew the chakra tighter and tighter, pulling it around and around his center.

Set your intention.

I'm going to push him down. I'm going to make sure that he doesn't hurt Hinata or Miki or anyone else. I'll hunt him down if I have to, but he's never going to hurt anyone again.

Choose your principle. Call it up from inside you and allow it to take over. Allow that principle to take over.

Destruction. I'm going to destroy Kisame. He'll never harm anyone ever again. He won't get to Hinata. He won't get to anyone.

Let the chakra unwind and go.

Naruto released the ball of energy inside him, letting it spiral out into his body, filling his veins with chakra. He felt as if he was almost being lifted off of his feet as the purpose-charged chakra pumped through his veins. He could do anything, and the first thing he was going to do was completely destroy Kisame.

And then things started to change.

Sora had never let Naruto practice the principles with the Kyuubi's chakra. It was too dangerous a combination; too many things could go wrong if the demon should somehow take even partial control. She had made him swear that he would never use them at the same time, under risk of having her put a permanent Silence no Jutsu on him. Naruto had grumbled slightly but agreed. Unless they knew exactly what would happen, it was too risky.

At the time it hadn't seemed like that hard of a promise to keep. Normally when the demonic chakra emerged, it did so with some sort of warning. Naruto would run out of regular chakra, or go into a rage and the chakra would slowly uncurl itself from its place in his core. If he was trying to use it without one of these conditions, he would have to ask and coax it out. So principles would be his first line of defense, and if that didn't work, he could stop using them and start using the fox's chakra. It seemed simple enough.

Except for the very first time he had seen the Kyuubi while falling down into the ravine, Naruto hadn't talked to the demon inside him. He has become a shadowy and undefined presence always slinking in the back of his mind. Naruto never forgot about him, but it was easy to pretend that he wasn't there when he didn't need him.

All of that changed in an instant.

Naruto felt his chakra levels boom as all of a sudden more chakra than he had ever experienced in his life came rushing through his system. It wasn't the uncurling that he normally associated with the release of the Kyuubi's chakra. This was a rush like a dam suddenly breaking. It was more than he had ever experienced before; more than what he had felt on the bridge when he was twelve, more than in the forest during the Chuunin exam, more than when he had fought Neji.

It was too much for his body for his body to handle. It started to bubble out from his skin like some sort of chemical burn. His skin glowed red as the chakra rose out from within him to form a protective shell around his body. It swirled around him and formed a shape vaguely resembling a large fox. Nine tails slammed into the ground around him, destroying the rice paddies in the surrounding area. All the chakra pulsed once, realigning itself with the principle of destruction.

"Yesssss…" came a deep voice from inside him, almost a growl. He felt a delicious joy run through his veins, making him shutter. That wasn't his voice, and that wasn't his emotion. He tried to push the Kyuubi back down, but the demon raged inside him, overwhelming his senses.

Naruto lifted his face and let out a howl.

Through red-tinted vision he could see everyone staring at him. When his eyes reached Kisame, they narrowed. That was his prey. That was the one he was going to destroy.

He could feel the power gathering in his palm and realized that he had subconsciously started forming a Rasengan in his hand. He crouched down near the ground, ready to pounce, the ball of chakra spinning faster and faster in his hand, gathering more and more power.

In the corner of his mind, he could just barely hear Hinata crying out his name.

He snarled.

He struck.


	34. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33**

To say Hinata was frightened of Naruto would have completely missed the point. Being frightened was hardly an uncommon state for her. She was frightened of disappointing her father, of fighting Neji, of anything over a C class mission, of ever becoming head of her clan, of the Kaze, and of the Akatsuki. Of course she was frightened, but that was an emotion she had come to deal with over the years. What she saw now did more than frighten her; it shook her to the core. Where Naruto had been standing a few seconds before there was now a raging, swirling mass of deep, blood-red chakra. It extended in long, flailing limbs, destroying everything it landed on. The body of chakra moved in and out as if it was breathing, the surface rippling with a strange life. It was horrible and inhuman and terrifying. But the worst part was that through all of it she could still see Naruto. He was there, his cheeks gashed with jagged whisker-like stripes, his eyes wild and yellow, his body bent into an animal crouch.

She watched as the strange blend of Naruto's image and demonic chakra launched itself towards Kisame. It suddenly occurred to Hinata that he seemed to either have no concept of how big he had become, or had forgotten that she and Miki were there. As he flew through the air aimed between her and Kisame, she just barely managed to turn and run in time to get out of the range of his tails before he landed.

Naruto hit the ground with a roar and threw himself directly at Kisame, Rasengan extended out in front of him. His opponent responded by raising his sword and cutting the ball of chakra in two. He clearly expected it to keep going right through to cut Naruto's hand apart, but instead Naruto neatly caught the sword in his chakra hand. The sword started to suck up the chakra and the hand shriveled, the arm becoming like a thin rope. Baring down on the hand, Kisame forced Naruto's weakened palm back.

Kisame's eyes widened in shock as Naruto grinned at him and his tails came flying around his body towards the man. Bending his knees, the missing-nin leapt in the air, his coat rippling in the wind. A few quick seals and a barrage of water came crashing down on top of Naruto. He snarled and whipped around, sending waves of water everywhere.

Hinata hugged Miki tighter into her body as one of the waves crashed into them, leaving her drenched from head to toe. Pushing her wet bangs out of her face, she grimaced as the tails whipped though the air, creating an odd thwapping sound as they snapped through the tops of the rice plants. She watched as Naruto bent his legs and jumped up towards the now descending Kisame.

Naruto brought his hands together; not the chakra-covered ones, but his actual flesh and blood hands, and began to rapidly seal. Seconds later, a massive burst of red and purple flames exploded in front of him, engulfing Kisame.

Hinata couldn't see what was going on inside the ball of flame, but the two men must have hit each other, because the next thing she knew, they were flying through the air in opposite directions. Kisame, his coat still on fire, landed on the roof of the house. The flames seemed to be sucked into his sword as it ate the chakra that fueled them, but not before some escaped onto the thatched roof of the house. They shot across the roof, catching on the dry grasses. He stood up, ripping off the charred remains of his coat.

Naruto turned and snarled, running on all fours back towards the house. _"Yes! Destroy him!"_ a voice shouted roughly in his head. Everything seemed to be moving too fast for him, things happening before he was even able to think about them. He was doing things, executing jutsus, throwing strikes, without even knowing what he was doing. He was used to the idea that the chakra would guide him towards his purpose, but this was different. This wasn't some vague otherworldly feeling that guided him. This was a strange, alien identity that had taken over completely.

From Naruto's center, a burst of deep red chakra pulsed through his chakra shell. It rippled and morphed, the tails becoming jagged and sharp along one side. He crouched and then propelled himself under Kisame's uplifted arm and turned behind him.

Kisame screamed as all nine tails racked across his body, leaving behind huge bloody gashes.

The tails shot out again, this time to wrap around Kisame's sword arm. The deep red color pulsed through the chakra body again and then the tails retracted, taking with them Kisame's arm, ripped out at the socket. Kisame screamed in pain, his opposite hand reaching up to hold the bloody stump. Naruto flung the arm away, sending it and the sword flying into a nearby field.

With a vicious grin, Naruto brought the Kyuubi's tails back around and crashed them back into Kisame's side. There was no way that the man could escape, no way that he would be able to survive having so much of his body ripped to shreds.

He didn't make a sound as he fell backwards off of the roof. No groan, no scream; nothing. Just a dull, sickening thud as he hit the ground, remaining limbs twisted at odd angles.

Naruto let out a howl and leapt off of the roof, chakra claws fully extended. He landed in a crouch directly on top of Kisame, claws digging into the man's torso. They ripped apart his body, slicing through layers of flesh and bone. Naruto howled as he continues to shred the man, tearing him to pieces.

Hinata gagged and fought the urge to throw up. It was a horrible, brutal thing to do, a far cry from the normally clever and unique style Naruto usually used to fight his battles. This was monstrous.

She wanted to be able to say that he didn't frighten her. She wanted to be able to love all of him, and had honestly thought that she had accepted everything that he was. But the truth of the matter was that at that moment she was horribly frightened of him.

And just like that, it was over. One of the seven swordsmen of Mist, one of the strongest men in the west, had been killed by a monster, torn into pieces by an inhuman monster. Endlessly brutal, it was a small glimpse of what it must have been like when the Kyuubi had roamed free of all constraints, in his own body.

It was impossible to fight. Even for one of the Akatsuki.

Hinata swallowed hard as Naruto slowly backed away from what used to be Kisame. Now all that was left was a bloody heap of flesh.

The principle of destruction. The Kyuubi had completely destroyed Kisame.

And so, the intention completed and Kisame destroyed, control over the chakra should have switched back to Naruto. The principles only took over for so long as the original intention was in place, and then dissolved, their task fulfilled.

But just as Naruto could start to feel the principle fading away, a low voice rumbled in his head.

"_Have you forgotten Itachi?"_ the voice asked.

Itachi. Yes; in his focus on Kisame, he had forgotten Itachi. Where had the man gone?

He turned to see Itachi standing in front of his sister. He seemed to do nothing, but all of a sudden, she doubled over in and fell to her knees.

Itachi had to be the single most indecipherable person that Sora had ever met. She had spent years getting inside the head of the klesha, those who had gone so crazy that they were a danger to society. She had met people who had been so completely gone that she thought she was able to get inside anyone's head.

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to get inside Itachi's mind. It was like he simply existed separate from the rest of the world; not engaging, just existing. Something had to be driving him, something had to make him massacre his family and join the Akatsuki. But she was completely unable to find it.

They stood opposite each other, Sora's eyes fixed on Itachi's center, both waiting for the other to move. The Sharingan was a weapon generally used in reaction to things that an opponent would do. It was based on knowing what the person was going to do next, catching their eyes, and turning their own moves against them. If she waited, forced him to make some sort of move, chances were it would give her the best opening she could hope for from the man.

But when his strike came it was not in the form that Sora had expected.

"The Ranmyaku were poisoned by the man who raised you, correct?" he said, and she froze. How the hell did he know that? A cold chill ran up her spine as she watched the man, unable to say anything. She simply continued to stare at his center, not moving, not saying a word.

"So you are Teishi." It was like a punch to the stomach. She had never told anyone that; not Naruto or Hinata or Yasu. The only person who had ever known was Nanashi and there was no way she would have let the secret out. Was this some ability of the Sharingan that she hadn't heard about?

She shook, but said nothing, being careful not to look directly at him. She couldn't figure this guy out. It was as if he was a rapt, but dispassionate observer to everything around him. She felt like she was being examined under a microscope, and the man doing the examining was ready to squash her between the slides.

"I wonder what people would do if they knew you were alive." It wasn't a threat or a taunt; it was simply a statement, as if he was simply wondering what those who knew of her heritage would do if they found out she was not dead. But it sounded like it didn't really matter one way or another to him; it was just worth thinking about. And it was one of the most chilling things Sora had ever heard.

"It's been twenty years; I've been forgotten," she said, and it was partially true. Her father would have moved on. He had simply written her off as another failed experiment and moved on. But there were probably others who would recognize the name Ranmyaku even if they didn't recognize her specifically.

Itachi just stared at her, thoughts obviously circling though his head in a way that she couldn't begin to understand.

"You might be useful if you are able to put all of the pieces of what happened together," he said.

"I put all the pieces together. Why do you think I did what I did?" she asked, still careful to keep her eyes focused down on his stomach, rather than his face.

He was silent for a second, staring at her. She breathed in and out deeply. He had shaken her, but she was holding her own and she refused to give in.

"I was his second choice, after you. I killed him."

It felt like the world had dropped out from underneath her. Unbidden, her eyes shifted up to look at his face.

He caught her in the Tsukuyomi.

Her world was tinted red and then started to swirl around her. Her breath caught in her throat as she took a step backwards, trying to break eye contact, but she couldn't look away. The red deepened and darkened as it seemed to seep into her skin, permeating her body. It felt like it was pullling her in tighter and tighter, sucking her into herself.

And then like a balloon bursting, everything rushed out again and she wasn't standing in the fields any longer. She was down on her knees on a tatami-covered floor in a large open room. She was small, a child again, hands clenched together in her lap. There were people around her, partially blocking out the light coming through the rice paper screens, but she couldn't see their faces. Hands reached for her and hauled her to her feet, twisting her arms behind her back and preventing her from moving. Someone pulled on her hair forcing her to look up at the crowd.

A few of the faceless beings parted, and her father stepped into view. He smiled at her, eyes wide and slightly crazed. She shook and the hand in her hair pulled back more. Her father advanced towards her, his steps smooth, his eyes focused on hers. He reached out with one hand to stroke over the top of her hair and down the side of her face. She wanted desperately to look away, but she couldn't, entranced by his eyes.

And then a searing pain like a pair of hot needles shot through her neck. They tugged slightly, pulling at her flesh and forming into a tightly coiled circle at the base of where her neck joined her shoulder. A tendril shot out, traveling up into her head and then down along her spine. She whimpered. Then the pain started to spread with a sickening, crawling sensation, like a living creature. It slowly overtook her shoulder and started working its way down her back and chest. She lay limp in the arms of her captors, staring into the eyes of her father as she felt the seal take over her body.

She was going back to being his, and this time she had no ability to fight it.

It happened again. And again. The process took forever, and she had lost count of the number of times it had played through, the pain never dulling, the time never seeming to pass any quicker. Then things went red again and started to swirl.

Sora found herself once again standing in the rice fields, staring at Itachi. Nothing had changed around her. Less than an instant had passed her by. She fell forward onto her knees, catching herself on her hands. Her head hung limply down as she attempted to breath. She tried to grab at the grass between her fingers, but they slipped and she ended up flat against the ground. It was taking all the energy she had to maintain conscious.

Itachi stared at the woman lying at the ground.

He had made a gross miscalculation. The timeline had somehow gotten thrown way off; the three of them had arrived in time to help their friends, which should have been impossible. They should have been too drained to do anything but run, let alone do such a huge summoning. And yet, somehow, they had done it and managed to have enough chakra to still fight.

Itachi didn't know how the Fourth had sealed the demon inside of the boy, but however he had done it, it was creating an interesting, yet unpredictable blend of chakra. It wasn't a question of releasing the demon, or even just siphoning off his energy. There was a more complicated relationship between the boy and his demon. Now the boy was setting his sights on him, no doubt intending to enact the exact same fate on him as he had on Kisame.

It only took Itachi a split second to weigh his options. Kisame was dead and thinking that he was only going to have to take care of one person, Itachi had mistakenly used the Tsukuyomi on the man. Using it on the woman at his feet had been, he was sure, the best option, putting her in place for future plans. But unfortunately that left him rather drained, and with the boy now a mass of very volatile chakra. It was too risky to try to take him on his own; he was going to have to recover and come back to retrieve the boy later. The rest of the Akatsuki could wait for the demon; it made no difference to him. If the others could not keep up their responsibilities, then it was not his duty to clean up their mistakes. He would come back and get him later.

And with that Itachi vanished. He was simply there one moment and gone the next.

Sora stared at the ground where Itachi had been standing. She had the horrible feeling that they were now in even bigger trouble than they had been earlier. Suddenly a rush of horrible chakra rushed past her head from the house behind her. Her eyes grew wide as she watched her brother, coated in red chakra and snarling like an animal, shoot past her into the fields. He twisted his head from side to side, clearly looking for Itachi.

It was exactly as she had feared. The combination of advanced principles and Kyuubi's chakra has given the fox demon an opening to come out. She cursed harshly under her breath. Damn thing had probably been lying in wait for an opportunity like this, a battle with emotions running out of control and the risks extremely high. Naruto was willing to go to almost any lengths to protect those he cared about and so the Kyuubi would be able to tempt Naruto into letting him take more and more control until he broke clear through the seal.

Naruto had to fight the Kyuubi, to calm down and push him back inside himself. Using every bit of strength she had, she rolled herself over onto her back and looked towards the house. Hinata was standing next to Yasu, Miki still in her arms. She looked like she was in shock.

Well, at least she was standing.

"Hinata!" she yelled. The girl looked up, slightly startled through her daze, and then started moving towards Sora. When she got there, Sora could see the panic in her eyes, and when she spoke her voice was nearly distraught.

"Onee-chan, Naruto, he's-"

Sora cut her off "Here, give me Miki. I need you to go get Naruto," she said.

Hinata stared at her for a second and then looked out into the field where Naruto was standing, tails whipping around in all directions.

"But, but I can't!"

Sora's eyes narrowed. "You don't have a choice! You're the only one that can do it. Now give me Miki and go calm him down."

Hinata bit her lower lip and looked out into the countryside. Huge swipes of red chakra painted the sky, moving in arching swirls. Whatever was out there, it couldn't be her Naruto. Not her sweetheart. Not the man she loved.

"Onee-chan, I, I, he's…" she sputtered nervously.

Sora's temper snapped. "Look Hinata, I'm still conscious here. I don't think Itachi meant to kill me, but I don't think he meant to leave me awake either. He's drained, but he's not going to give up at this point. They need Naruto for something and I don't think killing one of them is going to sway them all that much. He's probably out there right now regrouping. Maybe there are more of them around. I don't know, and we can't afford the risk. We need to get up the mountain NOW. And that means you need to go get that boy and bring him back here!"

Hinata gulped and nodded, kneeling down to lay Miki on Sora's chest. She smiled weakly and managed to put one arm around the sleeping girl. "You've just got to get him to fight it. He can still take control, but he needs to fight back. I'm not sure that right now he's thinking straight enough for him to realize that."

Standing above her, Hinata bit her lip and nodded. She forced her heart to stop beating so fast and took a few deep breaths. She couldn't afford to be frightened. All she could do was go in there and calm Naruto down.

She took one more deep breath and then headed out across the fields.

Sora closed her eyes and prayed she hadn't just sent the girl to her death. Surely Hinata would be able to get through to him.

But the Kyuubi had almost completely taken over.

"_You are weak without me, little one,"_ the Kyuubi whispered, and Naruto was willing to believe him. The need to get Itachi consumed him, magnified by a primal rage to destroy everything that might get in his way. He was barely able to think, let alone reason.

Hinata stood just outside of the rage of his tails and started yelling. "Naruto! Please, calm down! It's the Kyuubi! He's trying to break through the seal! You can't let him win!" But her cries seemed to have no effect, as if he hadn't been able to hear her at all. She was going to have to get in closer, do something drastic, just to get him to listen to her.

Hinata rushed in, trying to get in close enough to stop some of the flow of chakra and at least lessen the affect of the Kyuubi chakra on his system. If she could close down just a few of the chakra holes, partially shutting him down, then she stood a chance of calming him down. But trying to get through all nine of the tails without getting hit was next to impossible. If she hadn't had her Byakugan she never would have been able to do it; only someone who could see in almost all directions would be able to see the tails sweeping in behind her.

But she couldn't dodge all of them. She caught one across her chest, pushing her back, her feet waving helplessly in the air before she managed to maneuver herself underneath it and fall to the ground. She winced and tried desperately to inhale. She'd had the wind knocked out of her before, but it always made her freeze for just a moment, lying flat on the ground. Just long enough to see the sword that was sticking up from the dirt.

Kisame's sword. Unfortunately with Kisame's arm still gripping the handle, but after all that she had been through, that was hardly going to dismay Hinata. A chakra-eating sword might be just what she needed to get through to Naruto, even if it hadn't seemed to do Kisame much good. If she could somehow find a way to distract him with it…

Crawling on her belly, Hinata made her way over to the sword. She didn't have much chakra left, but sometimes it was a matter of subtlety over brute force. She winced as she thought about her boyfriend raging behind her. Brute force was definitely what she was going up against.

She watched the chakra flow through the sword as if it was a living being. It took her a moment, but she found the places she needed to hit in order to reverse the flow of chakra. Forming hard needles of chakra out of the tips of her two fingers, she dug under the sharkskin covering of the deadly blade and redirected the flow, causing it to run backwards, leaking chakra out into the air.

Grabbing the hilt with both hands, she shuddered as the sword began to shake under the pressure of having the chakra ripped from its internal passages. She bent her knees and heaved, throwing the weapon as far as she could. It flew through the air, its tremors becoming more and more violent until finally it exploded just before it hit the ground.

Instantly, all of the Kyuubi's tails whipped around to the explosion, lashing out to wrap around the fragments of the sword.

It was her chance and she took it. Summoning all of her strength, she ran as fast as she could towards Naruto's side, just hoping that she would be able to make it to his body before the tails came back. She was six feet away when one of the extensions came whipping back around and hit her on the back of the shoulder with a large chunk of Kisame's sword. She cried out as she heard the bone in her shoulder break, but the force of the blow propelled her forward to fall at Naruto's feet.

She looked up to find him standing over her and snarling. She swallowed and shook with fear as he drew back, face twisted. The red chakra of the Kyuubi completely filled her sight. Close up she could see that the man she knew was not the one staring out of those large yellow eyes. The demon had completely taken over. One large chakra hand pulled back and up, ready to swipe.

"Naruto!" she screamed in desperation and terror. For just a brief second, something flashed in his eyes, recognition of who she was and that he didn't want to do this. She launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around him.

Naruto staggered back, suddenly able to see what was happening again. Hinata was here holding onto him. Did that mean that Kisame was dead, his intention of destroying him fulfilled? Didn't that mean he should be in control again? A rage rushed through him, interrupting his thoughts. _"Do not think about her; focus on your prey! If you think about her, he will get away! Just get rid of her for now!"_

Yes, Itachi. He still had to kill him, destroy him. But what about Hinata? He needed to make sure she was safe.

The red chakra stung Hinata's skin as she pressed into it, but she held on, forcing her arms through until she was holding onto him and not the Kyuubi's form. Her shoulder was screaming in pain from where it had gotten hit by the tail, but she didn't let go. She winced and buried her face in his chest. All around her, his tails raged and the chakra pulsed, but she didn't let go.

It took all of the strength and determination that Naruto had to keep the Kyuubi from ripping off the girl who was clinging to him, from snapping her neck and throwing her away. The demon raged against the girl, screaming in Naruto's head to kill her. _"She is trying to stop you! She is trying to make you weak again! Do not let her take it away from you!"_

Holding onto him with one arm, Hinata made her index and middle finger into a point and carefully began pressing the chakra holes in Naruto's chest. Instantly, he felt the Kyuubi's presence begin to recede as the flow of chakra was reduced to a trickle. But he was fighting, desperately trying to reopen the holes with sheer force. Hinata had to keep going back and reseal the holes again to try to keep him out.

Naruto was thrown into a world of flashing red. For a second he would have partial control, and then the Kyuubi would force his way back through the passages and everything would be red again.

"Please, sweetheart. Fight him," Hinata whispered.

Even looking back and trying to piece everything together later, neither of them would be sure exactly what caused the Kyuubi to finally recede. They could not imagine that he had gotten tired or that he had given up. But just when Hinata though that she couldn't try to seal him one more time, the Kyuubi stop trying to push through. Naruto stopped trying to figure out what was happening. And then the red started to fade from his view. He shook his head to clear it

"Hi-Hina-chan?" he asked, looking down at the girl with her arms wrapped around him, face buried firmly in his chest.

"Naruto?" she whispered, raising her head to look at his, her eyes and face filled with hope. The red was gone, the lines on his face once more three small marks on each cheek, and his eyes had returned to blue. He hesitantly reached up to brush a stray hair back from her face, trying to sort out what had just happened. The tender gesture was all it took for Hinata to burst into tears. She grabbed onto him tightly, again burying her face in his chest again, but this time sobbing.

He wrapped his arms around her as he shook his head again, trying to get the last of the haze cleared from his mind. Slowly, it faded away, but not before a final whisper swept through his brain.

"_Remember, without me you were unable to kill your enemies. If you want to truly protect them, you are going to need my help."_

Naruto looked around at the countryside around him. The rice fields were ruined. The entire face of the fields, once neatly ordered, was now chaotic. The dirt had been pulled up in huge masses of mud mixed with the delicate stalks of the rice, now crushed and bent. He'd come crashing through the narrow paths of dirt and grace that separated the fields, digging deep trenches. It would take years for the farmers around here to rebuild.

The sun was starting to set behind the mountains, casting an odd golden light over everything. Off in the distance, he could see Nori and Yasu's house, still burning. Silhouetted by the fire, Yasu sat on the ground next to Nori, shrieking in agony. He could make out Kisame's maimed corpse lying in a bloody heap on the ground, and his sister lying with Miki on her chest, head tilted towards them, but her eyes closed. For a moment he was afraid she was dead, but then he was just able to make out her opening her eyes to stare at them.

His hold tightened around Hinata, who was still crying into his chest. He had done this. He had destroyed everything around him, the rice fields that he had helped plant and the house that he had lived in. He had wrecked it all.

It was his fault. If he hadn't stepped into their lives, the Akatsuki would have never come after them. There would have been no need to track them down if they hadn't trained him, and if he hadn't needed to learn the Shino-Tsu-Hiko, Sora wouldn't have had to take them off the mountain.

He had been here, he had the chance to protect them, to end it, and all he had caused was more pain. When he should have been able to step in and make everything better, he had made everything worse. He'd ruined their lives and almost killed Hinata. He looked down at her curled up in his arms, bawling.

Guilt ate at him. It was all his fault.

He had to get them back up the mountain before anything else happened. He let go of Hinata, backing up a step and rubbing her arms until she looked up at him. "Come on," he said. "Let's get out of here."

She gulped back her tears and nodded. Together they headed back towards the house. When they reached Sora, Hinata took back Miki, who was still unconscious, and Naruto helped his sister stand, his arm around her waist. They stumbled over to Yasu.

Her hair had partially fallen down from its neat bun and wisps were spread across her husband's chest. She clutched at his clothes with white-knuckled hands, shaking him slightly. She screamed his name, her body heaving with sobs.

Hinata turned Miki's head into her shoulder, even though the girl was unable to see or hear her mother's wails. No one deserved to see a parent this heartbroken.

"Hinata, I need you to signal to bring the falcon back. Can you do it?" Sora said softly.

Hinata nodded; she had just enough charka left. Knowing that they might have to run, they had asked for the falcon to leave, but not go far. With any luck, a simple signal would bring her back quickly. Shifting Miki so that her hands were free, she ran through the seals and completed the jutsu. The chakra flowed out of her hands and shot up into the sky. They waited until the falcon reappeared, landing gracefully, and lowering herself so that they could climb up.

Sora tried to stand slightly more upright. "Yasu, we have to go," she said evenly.

"NO!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, before burying her face in Nori's chest again.

Sora's voice was cold, almost unfeeling. "Yasu, it's not safe here. We need to leave before they come back."

"Let them come back! I'll kill them all!"

"Yasu, you're in no condition to fight them. If you stay you'll be killed."

"I don't care!" she wailed, pointing her face up to the sky.

Sora's calm broke. "Damn it, Yasu! Do you want Miki to be an orphan!"

That seemed to bring Yasu out of her shock slightly. She looked up at her daughter, resting in Hinata's arms. "Miki…" she breathed.

"If you stay here and they come back, you will die Yasu. Even if you manage to kill them it won't bring him back."

"No! He can't leave me!" she yelled.

Sora's face softened. "He won't. But we need you to come with us now, for Miki's sake."

She sniffed. "I don't want to leave him here."

Sora sighed. "Naruto, let me down." Her brother frowned, but let his sister drop to her knees. "I need you to carry Nori up onto the falcon. You have enough left in you, right?" He nodded, grateful that he had enough energy left to do at least a small repentance for all he had done. He walked over and picked up the man, slinging him over his shoulder. Yasu stayed on the ground, eyes traveling upwards to her husband's limp form.

"Yasu," Sora said, getting the woman's attention. "I need you to help me. I can't make it up onto the falcon's back on my own." Nodding, Yasu stood and helped her back to her feet.

Sora dragged in a staggered breath. "All right. Let's get going."

**Original Author's Notes**: Somehow I get the feeling that a lot of people are going to hate this chapter.

Much thanks and gratitude go out to Minimerc who looked at an early version of this chapter and Courai whose pictures of Sora (especially the one with her ice cream) provided much needed moral support to get this out. They should be up on my live journal tomorrow (user name same as pen name).

Wren

**Original Editor's Note**: HUGE apology for not being there to beta this. I'll explain it the same way I did in Demon's Sunrise: Welcome Home. At the end of June, my motherboard fried and took my computer with it; turns out the fan hadn't been plugged in for over 6 months, and I'd completely overheated the motherboard. It took a few weeks to get a new one, then the tools needed to install it. After that, it turned out Microsoft Office had been damaged, and I didn't have Word, and thusly couldn't beta. Then, trying to fix it, I lost Outlook (email) as well, and this chapter. The Disc Defragmenter wasn't functioning either. After placing a call to Microsoft tech support (don't ever call unless you have to; they're skilled, but so, SO frustrating) and fixing the Chkdsk, I regained Degrag. They said Chkdsk wouldn't have affected Office, and fixing it wouldn't matter, and they were wrong, which completely made my day! Anyway, I'm back now, and I shouldn't have any more problems, but that doesn't mean I won't. Occasionally I get a message about my video card not being connected, but it is. It's been no issue so far; I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyway, hope you liked this chapter. For any of those who, as Wren said, "are going to hate this chapter," just trust that it had to happen. And besides, who DIDN'T enjoy reading about Kisame's death? That's one of the first things I asked about when I took this job; I've been waiting for that for months!


	35. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34**

Everything seemed to fall apart once they made it back to Sora's house. They lay Nori's body in one of the side rooms while Yasu bawled and a newly awakened Miki screamed. Hinata took it upon herself to calm the girl, as Yasu seemed to be in no condition to do so. They spent hours together, Hinata holding the small girl as she cried. Miki was just old enough to understand what was going on. Her father had left forever, and her mother was too caught up in her own grief to comfort her. Hinata had remembered what it was like when her own mother had died, and would not let the girl out of her sight, hoping to give some comfort to the child, and maybe find some comfort herself.

Sora shut herself in her room and didn't come out for five days. She locked the door and wouldn't talk to anyone, saying she needed time to recover her chakra, but refusing to eat the food Hinata left for her outside the door. Naruto and Hinata stood in the kitchen and talked in hushed tones about what could possibly be wrong with her. It had to be something she had experienced under Itachi's illusions, but neither of them knew what. Finally, Hinata simply picked the lock and went in armed with a plate of food and Miki. A few minutes of Miki's big blue eyes pouting at her and Sora was at least drinking the miso soup. Still, her hair changed color three times in the following week until she finally settled on a deep, almost blood-red color which she wore straight down, hanging partially into her face.

Naruto watched everyone, drifting quietly from room to room. He did whatever Hinata asked him to; cutting vegetables, doing laundry, sitting with Yasu. The job of keeping them all together had fallen to Hinata simply because there was no one else. But she had risen to the challenge, presenting a calm "in control and in charge" side to herself that Naruto had seen on few occasions. She hurried up and down the hallways, Miki on one hip and her other shoulder still bandaged from where he had wounded her when the Kyuubi had taken partial control.

He couldn't look at that shoulder without wanting to throw up. He had done that to her. What sort of a monster was he?

Every once in a while Hinata would pause and ask him if he was okay. He would nod and she would smile slightly, reaching up on her toes to give him a soft kiss before returning to what she was doing. He had always known that she would be the head of the Hyuuga house, but this was the first time that he had actually been able to see it.

Things seemed to float around him in a haze. The only thing he could be certain of was his own guilt. That had settled dark and heavy on his shoulders. He had caused all this pain, and now Hinata was trying to hold it all together.

The funeral had been almost unbearable. Yasu had asked that they follow the traditional rites of the West, which Naruto and Hinata had only seen once before and had not been asked to participate in. Now they found themselves entangled in unfamiliar rituals. Any mistake they made was met with Yasu's icy glare. She had started to wear completely white again, the color of mourning in the west. It washed out her face, framed her unkempt white hair that she no longer bothered to put up. She looked more like a ghost every day.

They bathed and clothed Nori's body, placing small amounts of strange smelling powders on his forehead. The rituals seemed endless, taking well over a week to perform, although Naruto couldn't pin down an exact date. The days were starting to blur together. The body had to be prepared to move on into the world between before they went on to the next life. Food and money to aid him in his journey were bundled and placed in his arms before they carried him out into the courtyard. Both he and his possessions would be burned so they could follow him up to the heavens.

The five of them walked through the courtyard gates and off onto the grassy cliff. They placed him on the edge, then Naruto, Sora, and Hinata with Miki backed off silently, giving Yasu one last time to say goodbye.

"Watch her," Sora said quietly. "A hundred years ago it was customary for wives to throw themselves onto their husband's funeral pyres."

Naruto and Hinata looked up at her in shock. "You don't think she'll…" Naruto's voice trailed off as Sora shook her head.

"No, but I want to be certain. She's not thinking straight right now and she was raised in an extremely traditional family before they were killed. The fact that she would want all of this, the fact that she's not hell-bent on revenge yet…" she sighed. "It just worries me."

Hinata gulped and looked down at the girl who was crying in her arms. How could Yasu be so far into her grief that she would forget her daughter? Hinata simply didn't understand it.

As Sora walked forward to light the pyre on fire, Hinata went with her. Naruto hung back and watched as his girlfriend lifted the little girl into Yasu's arms. The woman seemed startled for a second, then gently held her daughter.

The pyre burst into flames, backlighting the three figures of the women; Sora in her long black coat, Hinata in her kimono, and Yasu in her sari with Miki in her arms. They stood there watching the blaze in silence, until Yasu let out a wail and fell to her knees, clutching Miki to her chest. Hinata and Sora both rushed over to comfort her.

Naruto wanted to go to them, but he couldn't get his feet to move. It wouldn't be right for the cause of all of this to try to comfort them.

Tears streamed down his face and his fists clenched.

Never again.

Hinata knocked softly on the door to Naruto's room before sliding it open a little bit. "Naruto?" she asked softly.

The room was dark and for a second Hinata thought he might be asleep. But then his voice came softly to her.

"Hina-chan," he said, his voice coming from the far corner of the room.

Hinata opened the door far enough to slip in before closing it behind her. Technically they weren't supposed to be in each other's bedrooms alone with the door shut, but she didn't think Sora would mind. They weren't going to do anything Sora would get upset about; Hinata just needed to be where he was for a while, and where he was happened to be in his room.

She waited for her eyes to adjust somewhat to the dark before slowly making her way across the floor, picking her way around the various ramen containers, books and clothes that Naruto had left scattered all over the floor. He was sitting on his futon, a couple of pillows propped up against the wall as he leaned back into the corner. His knees were bent and he rested straight arms on them, hands flopping loosely at the ends.

She knelt down next to him and brushed the hair out of his face, just barely able to make out his features in the dim light coming through from the window. He looked over at her and smiled thinly before dropping his knees so that she could crawl sideways into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her ear to his heart.

"How are they?" he asked quietly, running his hands up and down her back.

"We gave Yasu and Miki a sedative and tucked them both in bed. They'll sleep through at least until tomorrow," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. He felt her shiver and leaned over to grab the blanket from the foot of his bed, wrapping it around her as best he could with one arm. They sat there in silence for a few more minutes before she spoke again.

"I just don't understand," she whispered. "I don't want to make light of her grief, but Yasu…" She shook her head slightly. "It doesn't seem like her to completely fall apart like this. She's barely even paying attention to Miki."

Again Naruto said nothing, silenced by a mixture of guilt and feelings of helplessness. Like he knew what to say to make them feel better!

"Onee-chan is worrying me too. She's barely eating anything, and I can hear her wandering around at night," she continued, squeezing him harder.

"I don't know, Hina-chan," Naruto, whispered back, although what exactly he didn't know was unclear.

Hinata sighed. "We have five months left until we go back. Maybe that will be enough time to get her back on her feet again, but god Naruto," she said, her voice trembling. "I'm scared to leave them alone like this."

Naruto's arms tightened around her and he leaned down to kiss her forehead. There she went again, talking as if he was one of the strong ones, one of the sane ones. She had been there, she had seen it. He had been in denial for so long, but now even he had to face the cold, dark truth.

He held her tightly with his lips pressed to her brow for a few seconds before finally speaking.

"I love you. You know that, right?" he asked quietly, a soft break in his voice.

She smiled and snuggled in closer to him, curing tighter against his shoulder. "Of course I do. I love you too."

Normally her declaration would have warmed him, but now it was like a hand clenching around his heart. He wanted to be with her forever, but it just wasn't going to be the case.

He kissed her forehead again. "I'm not going back," he whispered, lips brushing her skin.

Her spine stiffened and her eyes widened in the dark. "What?" she asked, pulling away.

Reluctantly, he let her go, but his head flopped to his chest. "I can't go back to Konoha, Hinata."

Her voice wobbled hopelessly as she spoke. "Wha…what do you mean you can't go back?"

His hands tightened into fists at his sides. "I have things I need to do. Plus, I don't belong there. I never really have." She could just barely make out the last part, his voice just above a whisper.

"Of course you belong in Konoha!" she cried. "What about your friends? What about your teammates? What about becoming Hokage?"

"I don't expect you to understand!" he said, louder and more forcefully than he intended. She grimaced and slid off of his lap as he stood up. She'd always understood before when he would talk to her. Why wouldn't she understand now?

"Naruto!" she cried, sniffling back shocked tears.

"I can't go back!" he yelled, stomping towards the door. "It's as simple as that!" He slammed the door behind him.

Hinata sat in the dark and cried. What was happening?

It took Hinata half an hour to compose herself enough to leave Naruto's room and go find Sora, which took another fifteen minutes. It took Sora five minutes to haul herself out of the tub where she was lounging with a chocolate martini and get dressed, yelling curses the entire time. It took ten more for Sora to locate Naruto standing on one of the higher balconies that looked out into the mountains. His head was bowed as he sagged against the railings.

The tirade that Sora had been planning drained out of her. The boy was clearly upset, and yelling at him wasn't going to do any good. But she sure as hell wasn't going to go easy on him. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him from the opposite end of the balcony.

"Hinata's downstairs in the kitchen crying," she said, only some of her irritation coming through her voice.

Naruto winced and looked over at his sister. She looked exhausted, washed out and too thin. She had used almost everything she had in the fight, and the rest getting them back here. She looked haunted, the same way she did when you caught her wandering about in the middle of the night. He couldn't take it; he looked away again.

Sora crossed over to lean against the railing a few feet away from him. "For some odd reason she decided that I needed to come talk to you. Probably because you've got her so upset that she can barely put a sentence together."

He winced again and continued to stare out at the mountains.

"You're thinking about staying here?" she asked.

He swallowed hard and forced himself to talk, his voice quiet and raspy. "It'll be better. I could stay here, train with you some more. Then go out and kill the bastards."

"And Hinata?"

"Hina-chan has to go back. Her clan is waiting for her. No one's waiting for me."

"Don't be ridiculous. Obaa-chan's waiting for you. That perverted guy's probably waiting for you, and that ass Kakashi too, if he has any sense in that egotistical head of his. You had teammates, you had classmates; what about them?"

"I'm the Kyuubi, remember? They hate me for what I've done to the village. I destroyed-"

Sora slammed her fist down on the railing. "THAT'S IT! You want to tell me what the hell is wrong with you! Ever since we fought off Itachi and Kisame you've been moping around and acting like an idiot! I know you're grieving; we're all fucking grieving! We all feel like shit about what happened! But it's like you're not even you! You're Uzumaki Naruto, remember that? The one who's always loud, always playing pranks? The one who's going to surpass every other Hokage and get everyone to acknowledge him? Do you remember him, because for the last few weeks he seems to have disappeared!"

"Maybe he shouldn't have existed at all!" he screamed at her.

"What?"

"You saw what I did! I lost control completely! What the hell would have happened if people were there instead of rice fields? With all that destruction, how many people would have died? Did you see what I did to Kisame? He didn't even look human by the time I finished with him! I broke Hinata's shoulder! I'm the goddamn Kyuubi! A monster! A demon! And if I hadn't existed, Akatsuki never would have attacked Nori in the first place! It's my fault this happened!" He was red in the face, his throat hurting and his stomach lurching.

"Would you just shut up?" Sora yelled back. "You're started to sound like those goddamn villagers!"

"Maybe they're right!" he screamed, tears running down his cheeks.

There was a lengthy silence. They stared at each other for a long moment before breaking eye contact. Sora gripped the hair at her temples and balanced her elbows on the railing. Naruto leaned against one of the posts, eyes squeezed tightly shut and arms crossed over his chest. It was many long minutes before either of them spoke.

"Your mother saved my life twice," Sora said quietly.

Naruto looked up at her, trying to figure out how this connected to the conversation. "I know about one; she rescued you from your father when you were seven."

"Well," she said, dropping her arms and raising her head, "that's actually not quite right."

"What do you mean?"

She leaned her head against a post and looked out at the sky. "My father is one of the biggest assholes to ever walk the earth. He wanted the power of my bloodline limit, so he snuck in, murdered my clan, and put seals on all the children who lived. Unfortunately for him, sealing is a rough process, and I was apparently the only one who survived it. So he took me in, lied to me, trained me, raised me as some sort of ward, and told me that one day we would kill the people who had killed my family. He was always very vague about who it was, probably because he couldn't decide who he wanted to have me hate. He had a whole little gang of us, all talented bloodline-gifted children without any parents. But he always made it clear that I was the favorite; I had the most powerful bloodline limit."

She fell silent again, as if trying to decide what she wanted to say next. Flickers of memory passed over her face, but she continued to just stare. Finally, Naruto prompted her to continue. "What happened?"

She didn't move, just started talking again, her voice sounding detached and far away. "I accidentally found out what he intended when I was seven. I found out that he had killed my clan. I realized that I was nothing to him except the Taifuugan." She sighed. "Up until that point he had been my entire world. Everything I did, I did for my father's love. So when I found out that he didn't care about me and that I had been essentially living a lie, my world came crashing down around me. And I lost it. The last thing I remember thinking was that I was going to find him and kill him. I blacked out and woke up here with Nanashi."

"She had rescued you."

"She had picked me up out of the rubble, broken my father's seal, and nursed me back to health. But she didn't face down anyone, or steal me away. I had already killed them all; everyone in my father's compound. There had been other students, teachers, probably fifty people in all; my friends, many of whom had no more of an idea of what they were doing than I did. When I found out what I had done, I hated myself more than anything in the world. I tried to kill myself. That's the second time Nanashi saved my life."

"You tried to kill yourself?" he whispered.

She shrugged. "The world seemed so strange and disjointed, like I was looking through a fractured lens. It was a bizarre strange place I can't describe, and the only thing getting through was the guilt. I couldn't take it. I had the knife in my hand, ready to go through with the act when your mother stopped me."

"She told me that taking my life wasn't going to bring them back. She told me that everyone has things that haunt them. Everyone has things that they did or things that happened to them that they would do anything to change. They can either break you or they can make you stronger. But sometimes you go damn close to breaking before you become stronger. In the end it is those who do that make the greatest difference in the world."

There was a long silence between them.

Sora snorted. "Don't fucking pity me, Naruto. Poor girl with a tragic past; life was so hard on her that now she created this whole persona to fight evil; kicks ass to fight the pain inside. It would be great if everything were that simple. But the fact of the matter is that everyone, no matter how cushy their life seems, is fighting something from their past."

She reached over and pushed a finger into his stomach. "You've got a fox demon inside you kid, and that's worse than any other curse I can think of. And I will be the first to admit to you that it's as dangerous as hell. But, as much as I love you, and as much as I wish I could just get you to stay here with me, if you stay up here and hide away you're just hurting yourself."

Naruto glared at her and stepped away. "So you're saying that I should just look at it as a growing experience! Something that makes me stronger! Like it happened to another person in another lifetime, but it made me grow up and now I'm a better person so that makes it okay!"

She slammed her hand against his chest, catching him my surprise and pinning him to wall of the house. "Tragedy never makes anyone into a perfect person," she hissed. "It doesn't suddenly make moral decisions black and white, or prevent you from doing things you wish you didn't. You don't go through this and come out the other side with nothing to show but positive changes. I wish I could say that another girl in another life did what I did. But it was me. I will never forget and I will never forgive myself!"

She sighed and dropped her head, burgundy hair covering her face, before letting him go and stepping back. She stood for a minute with her head bent, pinching the bridge of her nose before she swept her hair out of her face and looked him in the eye. "And in the end, I've spent my life ridding the world of people like my father, who've lot all sense of right and wrong; those who hunger for power above all else, going to lengths others wouldn't dream of. Some were so powerful that they themselves were a danger. Others were more like my father, manipulative bastards who tried to twist others into things that were barely human. I haven't always used methods I'm proud of; there are a lot of things I would change, and sometimes I wonder if I'm any better than the criminals I've chased. It defined my life, and in the end I suppose that's all I can do as atonement."

They stared at each other for a long time, tears starting to form in the bottom of Sora's eyes. Finally she threw her arms in the air in a helpless gesture and sniffed loudly. She smiled slightly and shook her head. "I don't know, Naruto. Everyone has to find their own way of dealing with themselves. In my mind, you haven't even done anything wrong, but obviously in your mind you have. In the end, we all have to work these things out for ourselves." She turned and started to go.

"Nee-chan?" Naruto called after her.

She turned and looked back at him.

"Are you ever afraid you're going to do it again?"

She gave him a seemingly sad half-smile. "Every day."

"How do you…" his voice trailed off, unable to form the question.

"I know my limits. We think a lot of what happened had to do with my bloodline limit and my father's seal working together. There's a second level to the Taifuugan that I never use. I worked hard to figure out how far I can go without anything happening. Yasu and I spent years slowly working out how much I can use the Taifuugan without losing control. I've never gone beyond that."

"And that's enough to make you feel like you've got it under control?"

"I haven't shown a sign of doing anything even remotely like what I did then in twenty years. Nothing will ever make me feel like I have enough control. But I keep going, no matter what. That's what Nanashi wanted me to do." She stepped through the doorway and closed the door shut behind her.

He must have stood there for hours just staring out at the landscape, but he wasn't aware of the passage of time. When the sun started to rise over the tops of the mountains, he hadn't moved yet.

He heard the sliding door open and turned to see Hinata coming out onto the veranda. Her hair was down, hanging straight down to her lower back. It was strange seeing her like that; she almost always had it up in a bun or pulled into a low tail. Her eyes were still red and puffy from crying.

"How are you?" he asked, turning back towards the sunrise.

She stood there staring at him, wondering if he understood just how ridiculous the question was.

"Confused," she finally said. "I…I don't understand what's going on. I don't understand what it is you want," she whispered, her voice trembling.

He wanted to take it all back; to reverse the wheels of time and make everything different. He wanted to not be the cause of her pain. "I want to do what's best for you and what's best for the village. I want you to be happy. I want to do what you want, but…" He stopped, hands clenching into fists.

"But what?" she asked hesitantly.

"Never again," Naruto forced out between his teeth.

"Never again what?" Hinata asked, her voice filled with sorrow.

"Never again will anyone die protecting me!" he yelled, whipping around to face her. "I'm going to get stronger; stronger than Sasuke, stronger than my father, and stronger than the goddamn Akatsuki! I don't care what I have to do! I'm going to become so strong that nothing is ever going to happen to Konoha, or Yasu and Miki, or Sora!" He reached up and grabbed her face in his hands. "Or you. I am never going to let anything ever happen to you," he finished in a fierce whisper, his face inches from hers.

Her eyes started to fill with tears as she placed her hand over his on her cheek.

"Do you remember why Raoul said those who tried to copy the Kaze partner training failed?"

Of course he remembered. Everything about that day was seared into his memory. "Being a partnered pair does not make you two halves of a whole. Being a partnered pair means realizing that one plus one doesn't always add up to two. Sometimes it adds up to more," he quoted Raoul back to her.

She smiled and reached up to brush some wild yellow hair away from his face before turning out of his arms and walking over to the railing. "Three years ago you would have been able to easily convince me that we were two halves of one whole. We were just such opposites. You were loud and I was quiet. You were confident and I wasn't. You had no family and I had too much. All of my faults seemed to be your biggest strengths."

She sighed slightly and dropped her head. "I never told you about the first time I saw you. It was on the first day of academy training when we were six. My mother had just died and I was so frightened. I stood outside the schoolhouse staring at my feet while my father lectured me on the duties of a Hyuuga. And then out of the corner of my eye I saw you marching into the schoolhouse, head held high and a huge grin on your face, happy to be starting school. I wanted to be you so badly. And as we got older, I continued to admire you more. I had always wanted to be your friend, but somewhere in there I started to want to be more than that."

Slowly, Hinata lifted her eyes to his, willing him to understand how important this was. "But even then, back when I felt like I was the weakest person on earth, I never dreamed of a world where you would come and rescue me, protect me, and keep me safe. You could have convinced me that it was what was supposed to happen, that you would step in and protect me from my own faults, but I've never dreamed it that way."

"What did you dream?" he asked quietly.

She smiled. "I dreamed of being able to stand beside you. Of being a girl who had overcome all of her faults and could hold her head up high. And now, I feel closer to becoming that girl than I thought possible." She turned to look at him, warmth overflowing in her eyes. "It's because of you that I feel so close, but not because you complete me, but because you helped me complete myself."

"Hina-chan-" he said, eyes starting to water. She put her fingertips to his lips to silence him.

"And things happen to the girl who I want to be. She is always becoming stronger so that she can protect those who are precious to her. So if you want to become stronger to protect those who you love, I understand and support you completely. And if you want to protect me, I understand because I want to protect you too. But don't ask me to hide myself away. We're not two halves of a whole; we've made ourselves into more. And somehow we've also managed to make ourselves into very similar people in some ways."

"And so that's what I want," she concluded, slipping one hand up to cradle his cheek. "That is what I think is best for us, and best for Konoha. I want you to come back with me to Konoha as my partner. I don't want you to stay here in an attempt to protect me. And I think that once the other villagers start thinking past their prejudice, they'll realize they wouldn't want you to stay here either. Konoha is a better place with you in it."

He was started to bawl, large healing tears that wiped out some of his guilt. Sora was right in that the guilt would never go away completely. But the worst edge of it was fading away with his tears. He grabbed her and crushed her to him, his arms tight across her back. He picked her up slightly so he could bury his face in her hair at her neck.

"Shhhh…" she murmured, running her hand through his spiky blond locks and lightly massaging his scalp with her good arm. Slowly, they sunk to the floor together. After a minute, Hinata kissed his temple and started to pull him towards the wall of the house. Leaning up against it, she pulled him into her lap, cradling his shoulders. He leaned his head against her chest, clinging to her arm.

She leaned down and kissed his hair. "It's all right, sweetheart. Everything's going to be all right."

He pushed her kimono sleeve up to reveal one of the two jagged semi-circles of lines that had formed when some of the Kyuubi's chakra had leaked into her system while trying to summon the falcon.

"I hurt you," he whispered, his voiced still sounding choked.

"The Kyuubi did it, not you," she said firmly.

"They're already starting to scar!" he winced painfully.

"I don't care."

"But your shoulder-"

"Again, it was the Kyuubi, not you. Itachi killed Nori. You cannot blame yourself for this."

He sniffed and buried his face in her shoulder. "Do you really think that the village would be better with me in it?"

She sniffed back tears as well and ran her hand through his hair. "Of course I do."

"I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you came with me. I still don't know why Nee-chan decided you needed to come too, but I don't know what I would have done without you, Hina-chan."

She smiled. "I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't come. I needed to come; I needed to get away from the village." She smiled. "I needed to be with you. So that we could both figure out what we meant to each other."

He grinned and sat up to face her, breaking their embrace but staying close. "Of course, since I'm Uzumaki Naruto, even if we had stayed in Konoha, I would have figured it out eventually."

She leaned back, and smiled at him. "Really?"

"Sure I would have! I would have realized who the most perfect girl in Konoha was and beaten down your father's door to get to you!"

"Even with Sakura there?"

He shook his head. "Sakura-chan is nice and all but she just isn't you. She doesn't listen like you do, and she doesn't try like you do. Besides, the only thing she cares about is Sasuke." He made a face and she laughed.

"I'm glad you're back," she said solemnly.

He ginned. "It's good to be back."

He tugged at her hands to move her into his lap. "So we're still on for going back to Konoha, winning everyone's respect, changing your clan, getting me as Hokage, defeating Akatsuki, and keeping Konoha safe the whole time?"

She smiled as she sniffed, wiping the tears out of her eyes with one hand, and nodding.

He grinned down at her. "It will be easy, don't you think? Not a problem for two amazing ninjas like us. "

She sniffed again and put her hands back on his shoulders. "Piece of cake," she whispered.

He grinned. "Exactly."

She smiled slightly and closed her eyes as he bent his head to kiss her, but they shot back open again as his lips touched hers. There was something different going on, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. He tightened his arms around her, pulling her in closer to him and her eyes slowly slid closed again. Her fingers tightened on the top of his shoulder as they continued to kiss.

After a long few minutes they broke away, breathing hard, staying close together, just moving their faces apart so they could look at each other.

And they realized something had changed. Maybe it was being back here, back where it all began, but suddenly the contrasts in time became blatantly clear. His arms around her still held the same comfort and thrill, but there was another edge to it; something deeper that wove around her heart, squeezing it tight.

They'd said all of it before, in one way or another. They had known their futures were bonded together since the day they accepted the partner training. They had known they were more than that for over a year. But what that had been they had been a little unsure of. They were family, that much had been certain; Naruto had known what he wanted with Hinata when he saw Nori and Yasu together. Sora had teased them that it was like they were playing house and acting like an old married couple. She would remind him to wear his coat and he would laugh and kiss her softly.

Somehow, things had changed. The first time he kissed her, back in the days when he always asked her permission first, it had just been a shy, sweet touching of lips. Now when their lips made contact it was like something was attached to their hearts, pulling on them. Something that made them want to cling together and never let go.

They stared into each other's eyes as the weight of all they were carrying together flashed over them: her family, his demon, their village, their hopes and dreams. It was like the world was pressing down on them, but together they pulled at each other's hearts and kept each other from collapsing. And somehow they both instinctively knew what was going on.

They were growing up.

He kissed her again.


	36. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35**

_The door to the porch slid open and Sora slipped through. "You two making out out here?" she asked, moving to lean against the porch rail, spoon stuck in a carton of Death By Chocolate ice cream._

_Naruto snorted from where he was perched on the railing and pulled Hinata closer into his chest as her cheeks colored. "No, we were just talking."_

_Sora snorted herself. "Yeah, right. You two better get it in now before you head down tomorrow. Because I don't think that Hinata's father is going to be as lenient with you two as I am."_

"_Lenient?" Naruto scoffed. "What the hell are you talking about? You put a huge picture of the two of us kissing up in the kitchen asking us to 'please control ourselves'."_

_Sora swallowed another bite of ice cream. "Hey, I said to control yourselves in public. I don't mind if you two suck face as long as I don't have to watch it."_

_Hinata let out a small 'meep' of embarrassment and buried her face deeper into Naruto's shoulder._

"_Hey, cut it out, you're embarrassing Hina-chan!" Naruto yelled, causing Hinata to wince. "Sorry," he added with a rueful smile._

"_You two ready to go back?" Sora asked, her voice taking on a more serious tone._

_Naruto sighed and looked back out at the mountains. "As ready as we're going to be."_

The last five months had proved to be some of the hardest Naruto and Hinata had ever been through. They had gone to Sora and told her they wanted to train harder than ever. They were good, but they needed to get far better if they were going to make Konoha into the place that they wanted it to be and defeat the Akatsuki. Sora had snorted, smiled, and shaken her head.

"Took the two of you long enough; I was expecting this to happen weeks ago," she said. "Come on, let's go talk to Yasu."

"Why?" Hinata had asked as they left the kitchen to go up to Yasu's room, where she had sequestered herself for the past month.

"Because first of all, she needs something to distract her, and helping me train you two is a good idea. Second, she can't train you just staying in that room and she needs to get out of it. Third, because she's still the best jutsu creator I've ever known and she needs to start getting back into the flow of things in terms of research."

"Why does she need to get back into the flow of things in terms of research?" Naruto asked.

"Because eventually she's going to start channeling her grief towards killing the man who did this. She can't go out and hunt them down with Miki, but she can give us the tools to do so."

And when they had found Yasu, she was sitting at the desk in her room, staring at the picture of her, Nori and Miki in front of their house. Miki was at her feet, quietly looking at a book. They both had become entirely too withdrawn since Nori's death, barely even interacting with the rest of the world.

"You," Sora said, pointing to Yasu, "are going to the library with Hinata where the two of you are going to start looking to see if we have anything on the Sharingan. And you missy," she said, picking up Miki off the floor and pushing her into Naruto's arms, "are going with Naruto, where he is going to teach you the first of the Shina-To-Be sets."

"Sora," Yasu said with a warning note in her voice.

"No, Yasu," Sora replied, grabbing her arm and hauling her to her feet. "It's been a month. You need to at least do something, and if we're going to prevent these men from doing this to anybody else, you're going to have to get your ass in gear."

"Doing this to someone else?" Yasu asked, slightly startled, as if the idea that they wouldn't stop at just her husband was surprising.

Sora opened her mouth to speak, but Naruto beat her to it. "If we don't stop them, how many more people will die? We don't even know what their plans are, Yasu. Unless we have your brain working on it, how the hell are we going to figure it out?"

Yasu took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Right."

And so they did. For their final five months on the mountain, the four of them worked harder than they ever had before. They barely ate or slept, training all day and working on creating jutsus with Yasu late into the night. The training itself had taken on a different tone, a more focused, pressured feel. It took Naruto and Hinata a few weeks to realize that it was partially due to the fact that Sora had started training herself as well as them. They were still young and had a lot to learn from her, but something had changed. They were no longer her students as much as they were her training partners.

Yasu refused to go down off of the mountain. She explained to them that she was never going to leave the house and Nori's ashes, buried deep into the side of the mountain. She intended to stay by his side for the rest of her life. Sora tried to explain to her that it was not what Nori would have wanted nor what was best for Miki, but Yasu wouldn't listen.

And so when the time came to pack their bags and return to Konoha, it was only Sora who walked down the stone passage with them. Wrapped in some of the best cloaking jutsus they could find, the three of them made their way back towards the village, keeping off the roads and camping out in the woods.

Every night, wrapped in the same blanket, Naruto held Hinata tightly. Once they got back, she would return to the Hyuuga household, and somehow he didn't think her father would let him spend the night.

Finally, they reached the part of the forest surrounding the village. It was night and the winter wind nipped at their cheeks as they stopped just off the road to say goodbye. The three of them stood there staring at each other, until finally Sora spoke.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "You're going to fail your mission because of me. I'd go back with you, at least for a little while, but Yasu…"

"Eh, it's okay," Naruto said. He hated the idea of failing a mission, and he hated the idea of having his sister walk away even more. But he couldn't bare the idea of Yasu and Miki up on that mountain all by themselves. "You'll come to visit soon, right?" he asked hopefully.

She gave him a half smile. "Just give me a while to get Yasu back on her feet and I'll come for a nice long visit, I promise."

"You better, or I'll come up that mountain and kick your ass!" Naruto exclaimed with a grin.

Sora snorted. "Like you could."

Naruto's grin widened. "Just wait!"

Smiling, Sora wrapped her arms around him to give him a hug. Suddenly she burst into tears. Naruto hugged her tighter, looking over her shoulder at Hinata. The girl just smiled, a stray tear running down her own cheek.

"Hey, hey, what's going on with all this crying?" he asked jokingly.

Sora sniffed and laughed a little at his tone. "I'm sorry, it's just…you're taller than me."

"Huh?" he responded, pulling away slightly to look at her.

"You've grown a hell of a lot in the last three years, kid." She sniffed and reached up to ruffle his hair. "Told'ya you'd reach six feet."

He grinned at her and pulled her back for another quick hug. She squeezed him back and then turned to face Hinata. They smiled at each other and then embraced.

"You're going to stand up for yourself with your father, right?" Sora asked.

Hinata pressed her lips together and nodded. They were both crying, while Naruto looked on awkwardly. Sora sniffed and jerked her head towards Naruto. "You're going to keep him from doing anything too stupid, right?"

With a half smile, Hinata nodded again.

Sora grinned. "You're pretty kick ass now; don't forget it and let people walk all over you."

Naruto snorted behind them. "Like I'm going to let that happen." They all chuckled a little, trying to shake off their sadness.

Finally Sora cleared her throat and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "All right; well, we can't stand here forever folks. You two scat off to your village and fix it already."

Naruto held out his hand and Hinata slipped hers into his. He squeezed it once before they both turned to say goodbye one last time.

Sora smiled at them, eyes glistening with tears. "You know you're always welcome up at the house. You're both family, you know, so it's basically yours anyway. If this place becomes too unbearable, just come on up. And the two of you better keep in touch; that's what the falcon's are for."

"Don't worry," Hinata said. "I'll write you about everything."

"Good," she nodded and chewed on her bottom lip for a second. Then she took a deep breath and said, "And if you need me for something, just let me know, and I'll come down."

"Eh, we'll be fine," Naruto said.

"But if your not-" Sora started before Naruto interrupted her.

"We'll let you know," he said.

She smiled and choked back another round of tears. "All right, that's it. This time you two really need to get going. I have to get back up to the mountain. I'll send one of the falcons with the rest of your things when I get there."

"Give our love to Yasu and Miki," Hinata said, a few stray tears sliding down her face.

Sora smiled. "I will. Now get going."

They nodded and turned to walk back towards the gates of Leaf. "Bye Nee-chan! See you soon!" Naruto called back over his shoulder.

"Don't get into too much trouble!" Sora yelled back.

She watched them walk down the road that would lead them back to the gates of Konoha. Suddenly her mind flashed back to the day they left, Naruto pulling Hinata along by her arm, anxious to get going.

"I hope you're happy with me, Nanashi, wherever you are," she whispered into the dark. Her eyes filled with tears once again. "Be safe," she wished to the two barely visible forms in front of her.

She turned and headed back towards the mountain.

Naruto and Hinata walked hand and hand back towards Konoha.

**Original Author's Notes**: And that's the end! The story will continue exactly where it leaves off in the sequel Twice Shy. The first chapter will hopefully be out in a few weeks.

I have so many people to thank! First and foremost to TimeShifter my wonderful friend and beta, who put more time and effort into this than you guys know. I couldn't have done it without him. I am so happy that he will be continuing with me on Twice Shy.

To minimerc, in-character-checker and great author herself who read key chapters and let me know when things were off.

To Aternox for helping me with the Japanese language issues like naming characters and sending me some amazing art of Naruto and Hinata. Check it out at kirisame. Courai who has done some amazing pictures of some of the original characters for Two Halves. Her stuffs at Courei. all the folks over at Kitsune no Hana (particularly NotasuSama and chibified kitsunes) for being incredible cheerleaders while I was writing nasty battle scenes. I wish the forum was still active; it was one of the nicest on the web.

And finally to all of my readers who put up with my excessive numbers of original characters, political textbook type writing, typos and the times I said that Naruto had a wolf demon inside him and that red and blue made green. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

**Original Trailer for Twice Shy**:

Naruto and Hinata return to their home after three years away to find the more things change, the more they stay the same. Many of the problems they had when they left come back to hit them full force, while they try to reintegrate themselves into a village that is different than when they left it. Friends and teammates have grown, new alliances have been formed, and the Jounin test is just over the horizon. And lurking in the shadows are Akatsuki and others who are bent on the destruction of Naruto and everything, and everyone, he loves…

**J R LeDoux's Notes**: And it's done. I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I did. I will begin posting the sequel tonight. Ja ne.


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